Covid-19. Amendment of Schedule A - L.N. 137 OF 2020 -COCP

Dr. Jean-Carl Abela [Associate at FSGM.Partners] 

Through L.N. 65 of 2020, the Maltese Courts and the Court’s registry, together with all Tribunals, have been closed by order of the Superintendent of Public Health and shall remain closed until such order is repealed by the Superintendent of the Public Health. Therefore, judicial and legal acts cannot be filed for the time being since the Court’s registry is closed.
However, the law offers a special procedure in which through an application, the Court Registry can be requested to be opened in order to file certain judicial acts, albeit with an extra cost for opening the Court during the days or periods when it is closed.
However, through L.N. 137 of 2020, these extra costs and tariffs, when it comes to filing the following judicial acts, have now been temporarily waived off away during such times, which are:

• Acts relating to personal separation cases;
• Acts relating to divorce or annulment cases;
• Acts relating to maintenance matters;
• Acts relating to filiation or paternity procedures;
• Acts relating to child abduction or custody matters;
• Executive or precautionary acts (all type of warrants, including judicial sale) ;

The exigencies of these type of judicial acts has driven the legislator to waive off the extra judicial costs since such acts require immediate and efficient intervention since the parties may end up suffering irremediable prejudice if not filed.
Other judicial acts can still be filed however, the cost of these acts will calculated according to the“extra tariffs and costs” established in the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure.

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