This was totally unnecessary and inappropriate

The Chamber of Advocates instructed lawyers at around 10am yesterday not to appear in court, as a result of which no cases were heard after 10.30am.

And because of that, countless numbers of people – witnesses, plaintiffs, defendants – took the morning off work and struggled for 90 minutes through the traffic to Valletta, struggled for a parking space, and then drove back again, all for nothing. They arrived to find the Courts of Justice empty, the doors of the courtrooms locked and their cases postponed, meaning they would have to take another morning off work and repeat the process.

Could the Chamber of Advocates have been any more inconsiderate to all those people? They themselves do not care as they are in Valletta anyway, and it looks like some of them are not even concerned about the inconvenience caused to their clients.

Beyond that, the decision taken in solidarity with a murdered lawyer was completely inappropriate anyway. They do not know yet whether he was murdered in connection with the fulfillment of his professional obligations as a lawyer, or not. It is looking increasingly likely that he wasn’t.