Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1238298
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 22 APRIL 2020 NEWS VACANCY Role: Operations Associate A company in the technology industry based in Malta is seeking to recruit an Operations Associate on a full-time basis to join its dynamic team. Responsibilities: • Working actively with different company stakeholders • Onboarding and supporting the company's customers and partners • Cooperating with customer service and marketing departments • Managing inventory and scheduling meetings Key qualifications and skills: • Fluent in English both in written form and orally • Good communication skills and self-starter mindset • Organized self-starter Kindly send us your Cover Letter and CV by not later than Thursday 30 th April on recruiters.malta@gmail.com. . . MATTHEW AGIUS VIRTUAL courtrooms and the remote filing of judicial acts are amongst a list of proposals sub- mitted by the Chamber of Ad- vocates in a report on how the law courts can function in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The closure of almost all the courts of justice for the past month has set the stage for a worrisome state of backlog and stagnation as pending and un- heard cases begin to pile up and it is in this light that the Cham- ber has been urgently exploring different methods of adminis- tering and representing justice. The Chamber said that despite closures, legal notice 61.20 still grants the power to any This is not proving to be enough to tackle the problem, however, says the Chamber. "Although the situation [related to COVID-19] in Malta seems to be relatively under control it would appear that the current situation will not be resolved within a short period of time, and consequently it is impera- tive to explore options as to how our courts can start to function, even if in a limited manner for the moment." It noted that some judges have already taken certain initiatives to prevent judicial gridlock, "which even though commend- able in terms of proactively ex- ploring ways of how court may start to function, it may prove to be illegal in that it runs con- trary to the law at present, and therefore certain legislative in- tervention would be necessary to provide a relaxation to the general court closure." The law already caters for the possibility of witnesses being heard remotely, with the Code of Civil Procedure granting the Court the power to allow the video-recording of any evidence required from a witness. But the law seems to allow the use of video-conferencing only in the case of collection of evidence and consequently, legislative intervention would be required in order to amend article 622(B) to allow the use of video-con- ferencing more widely. "In the current situation the use of video-conferencing tech- nology for court sittings to take place can become more compli- cated where there is the need to hear witnesses. This also en- tails adopting working practices which would emphasize more written pleadings and therefore resorting to written processes rather than oral ones in court sittings," the Chamber said. The proposal regarding vid- eo-conferencing sittings would initially only apply to the Court of Appeal, as no witnesses are heard at that stage, until the fin- er practical details of the system are worked out. In the case of Civil Appeals the lawyers can choose to rely on the original pleadings or alter- natively, file a note of submis- sions in which case there would not be the need to have a sitting, other than for the pronuncia- tion of the judgement. Should however, the lawyers opt to make oral submissions then a remote sitting would need to be arranged for this purpose. In view of the fact that the accused would need to be present, both during the sitting to hear oral submissions as well as during the sitting for the pronuncia- tion of the judgement, he may connect remotely. In criminal appeals, lawyers tend to rely on making oral sub- missions; written submissions are very rarely made other than the appeal itself. Although in theory oral submissions can be made through a video-confer- encing system, lawyers raised concerns because their client would need to be with his law- yer even in those cases where the judgement is going to be delivered. The lawyers explained that if a person is given a prison sentence he needs to have his lawyer with him to explain to him the judgement and the consequences of that judge- ment. They all insisted that the fact that the accused would be able to present virtually is not sufficient. The lawyer would need to speak with his client in confidence, and the proposed system does not guarantee this. On the court registry front, the Chamber opined that a system for the electronic filing of acts was "long overdue and should be introduced irrespec- tive of the current situation." Despite being launched to much fanfare some years ago, the online court registry sys- tem does not allow for the fil- ing of all judicial acts. Noting that it was not realis- tic to expect the setting up of a fully-fledged electronic filing system in the short term, in the short term it proposed an email-based filing system. With regards to cases where physical filing of acts is need- ed, the Registry could be open, with access restricted to legal procurators, and then only one legal procurator at a given time would be able to access the Registry, by appointment, with the sole scope of filing acts, ad- vocated the Chamber. Lawyers propose virtual courtrooms during COVID-19 shutdown Almost all the courts of justice have been closed for the past month