Watch: ‘Long Delays Scare Me’ – Robert Abela Proposes Wide-Ranging Family Court Reform
Prime Minister Robert Abela called for a major reform of the family courts and admitted he is “scared” at how long several separation cases take to conclude.
“We should reduce the number of cases that end up in court, not because I’m allergic to judges, but because the phenomenon of delays scares me,” Abela told professionals during a consultation meeting.
“I have seen too many children entering the judicial system as children and exiting it when they were approaching adulthood. Children have ended up the victims of a dispute between their parents.”
Abela put forward a number of proposals for consideration. Primarily, he said the government wants to push forward the concepts of reconciliation, whereby parents agree to stay together, and mediation, whereby they agree on a separation agreement without going to court.
“A bad deal is better than a good sentence,” he said. “A bad deal is a deal that the parties agreed to themselves, whereas sentence is imposed on you by a third party.”
He also called for a more objective system to determine maintenance, and a more balanced system when it comes to parents’ rights to access their children.
“As it stands, access is practically a form of punishment against a particular parent. It is so limited that it is as though the court is whipping a parent.”
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