Commission for the Administration of Justice

Published: September 7, 2011 at 4:32pm

I have been told that the rumour is being put about that the Commission for the Administration of Justice asked me EIGHT TIMES to attend one of its sittings to talk about Magistrate Scerri Herrera and that I ‘never went because I am arrogant’.

The Commission for the Administration of Justice never made any contact with me, of any sort, not even once.

They never wrote, they never telephoned, and they certainly never asked me to attend any sitting.

The people putting this rumour about are, apparently, lawyers.

Perhaps they should take note of something I said in court yesterday that went unreported: that the main reason things in the field in which they work have come to such a sorry pass is because rather than standing up to the system, with all its inherent sleaze, nudge-nudge shortcuts and over-familiarity between the police, the judiciary, defence lawyers and politicians, they collude and work with that system for their own advancement and survival.

Does the Chamber of Advocates do or say anything?

No.

Do individual lawyers voice their concern, except to each other over coffee?

No.

Yes, I know there are several lawyers who are irritated at me because by pointing out the flaws and corruption in the system I am inadvertently pointing out their own shortcomings in failing to raise the alarm themselves.

They can pile into a sack and go to hell.

Nobody is ever going to get impaled on one of their spines, that’s for sure.




32 Comments Comment

  1. Grezz says:

    What bloody awful people. They are probably the same kind of lawyers who would have no objection to having their case heard by Consuelo Scerri Herrera, even if there is a definite conflict of interest.

    They are typical Sicilian survivors, of the worst sort of mentality.

    Either that, or they allow personal prejudices and hatred to over-ride any shred of morality they might have started out with.

  2. Grezz says:

    (http://www.avukati.org/chamberofadvocates/content.aspx?id=29020 )

    President: Reuben Balzan
    Vice President: Ian Spiteri Bailey
    Hon. Secretary: Stefan Camilleri
    Hon. Treasurer: Tanya Sciberras Camilleri
    Public Relations Officer: Louis Bianchi
    Members: Dr Andrew Borg Cardona , Dr Daphne Dodebier, Dr Vincent Galea, Dr Edward Gatt, Dr Joseph Giglio, Dr Lara Lanfranco.

    There is no way on earth you are going to have any of that lot take an open clear stand against Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s behaviour. It’s because of such self-interested reticence that the rot has continued to grow and to set in.

    • Hot Mama says:

      Biex hargu qatta’ bla habel kontra l-Knisja fil-kaz ta’ Deborah Schembri ma qaghdux jahsbuha darbtejn. Choose your battles, eh?

  3. Grezz says:

    Chairman:
    H.E. Dr George Abela
    President of Malta

    Deputy Chairman:
    His Honour the Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri (ex officio)

    Members:
    The Attorney General Dr Peter Grech (ex officio)

    The Hon. Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia

    The Hon. Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi

    Magistrate Dr Jacqueline Padovani Grima

    Magistrate Dr Claire Zammit Stafrace

    The Hon. Mr Justice Vittorio k/a Victor Caruana Colombo

    Dr Pawlu Lia

    The President of the Chamber of Advocates, Dr Reuben Balzan (ex officio)

    Secretary:
    Dr Deborah Farrugia

    Clerk:
    Mr Reno Cortis
    Tel. No:
    2122 1221

    This commission falls under the Office of the President –
    http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/bodies/commissions/justice.asp

    How can we be sure that the president is looking at matters as he should, when his son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Lydia Abela, are such close friends of Magistrate Herrera?

    • Reporter says:

      Pawlu Lia was appointed by the Leader of the Opposition, wasn’t he?

      And he is the Labour Party’s lawyer in libel suits.

      He’s hardly likely to take a stand against Consuelo Scerri Herrera.

  4. D Kiss says:

    Keep on the good work, Daphne, maybe one day Malta will be rid of such trash.

    A lot of people are aware of the situation you described in court yesterday, but it had to be you to expose such vulgarity, and for that, I and other honest individuals admire you although many don’t express it.

  5. Jozef says:

    If having a sense of order and the courage to uphold one’s principles is arrogant, please count me in.

  6. ray says:

    Unsurprisingly no word from Malta Today and the self-pronounced ‘not afraid of anyone’ Saviour Balzan. Independent newspapers worldwide would have jumped on a story like this, but here, nothing.

    Goes to show the agendas some so-called liberal newspapers (or should that be rags?) have in Malta. Shame.

  7. Mark Vella says:

    Just now on facebook…

    Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando
    There are few things more despicable, and nothing more hurtful, than a trust broken.
    Like · · 4 minutes ago ·

    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/821/jpoy.jpg/

    [Daphne – Damn right. Imagine how the man feels who was good enough to marry Consuelo Herrera and find himself betrayed many times over.]

    • Ian says:

      This is such a sham! It should be the magistrate who precludes herself from hearing the case and not her brother!

      The fact that he passes any case on to another lawyer can only mean one of two things (probably both):

      1. the magistrate will still know that the defendant was originally a client of her brother’s and can still be biased because of this;

      2. a breach of the client’s human right to seek and have legal counsel of his own choice.

  8. Herbie says:

    My mother, God rest her soul, used to say” l-ebda avukat qatt ma mejjel il kappel ta’ avukat iehor” .
    Oh how right she was!

  9. The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse:

    You cannot post “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and “Thou shalt not lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians.

    It creates a hostile work environment.

    (George Carlin)

  10. silvio farrugia says:

    These people who because of their titles and position in society think they are better then us the great unwashed should not be presiding over us, arresting us or other things their ‘profession ‘ allows them to do.

    Does the E.U. go into this sleaze, does it investigate? What can we do against such collusions ?

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Nothing. Especially when we fall over ourselves with the ingratiation and deference and the “Dokktorr” titles. Bunch of twats.

      They’ve been the ruin of this country, ever since their meddling in the pre-war period.

      We must be the only Western country where the title “Dr” has people assuming you’re a lawyer. In normal countries they would at least assume you’re a medical doctor.

  11. Min Weber says:

    If it were serious, the Commission would ask you to give testimony.

    I must say, without beating round the bush, that George Abela is causing untold damage to the institutions of the country.

    His less-than-clear quarrel with his right-hand man, Olaf Terrible, left many questions unanswered thereby tarnishing the Presidency.

    Now, with his cavalier attitude where Consuelo is concerned, he is pushing the judiciary into a free fall without parachute.

    He also tried to manipulate the legislature when he delivered speeches on the family, which had the direct effect of opening the doors to his son as star candidate on the 6th district and to this daughter-in-law (wife of the same son) as executive secretary.

    In a nutshell, George Abela is proving to be a wheeler-dealer, wearing a fake smile and an unassuming attitude. But in reality he is a manipulator with no apparent belief in the intrinsic worth of the institutions of the state for a democracy.

    Ultimately, George Abela is an uncouth man who happens to find himself at the top state position thanks to chance, intrigue, and convenience. No virtue, just fortune.

    But the bottomline is that it is democracy in our country which is paying the price for Abela’s ego trip. Pity. No! Actually, shame.

    • Macduff says:

      Touche.

    • M. says:

      Beating about the bush, huh? From what’s been said around for years, many have been “beating” around one particular bush, hence this mess.

    • Notna says:

      Let us all remember that George Abela was active in the PL way before 1987…..

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Abso-effing-lutely, Min Weber. In one post, you’ve explained what the best PN strategists failed to understand – George Abela should have been kept in the political arena, not taken out of it and sent to the Presidency. He was made president after Labour’s leadership election, so exactly how was he supposed to “isir leader hu, u l-Laburisti jirbhu l-elezzjoni”?

      He should have been there, alongside Joseph Muscat, with his smile or not, reminding us what a godawful twerp the new leader is. He was more useful to PN as a Labour candidate rather than as President.

      Instead he was sent to a life of ease and retirement, where he can scheme away to his heart’s content. It’s all down to the old “turn the other cheek” nonsense and misguided belief in national reconciliation.

  12. Herbie says:

    Well Baxter that’s exactly what the late George Bonello Dupuis, then Minister of Finance, had told me when investigations in the Mid Med Bank affairs of the 1980s were being carried out on me telling him that the big fry, a lawyer, would get away with it and the buck passed on to the bank executivies. Everyone to his own he had told me.

    • Lomax says:

      It doesn’t make sense. That write-up really doesn’t make sense. I am still trying to understand what it is all about – I wonder whether it was the law reporter who messed it all up.

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