Three years after flagging the dismal track record of the Court Services Agency to recoup court fees, the National Audit Office expressed concern on the “insignificant progress” registered to address the issue.

The verdict was reached in a follow-up report which gauged the progress achieved following a similar audit carried out in 2022.  While initial fees charged at the start of the case are paid instantly, those charged after a case is concluded “in many instances” are not being recouped. The situation was so desperate that in 2022 only 7% of these arrears was collected during the year under review. This translated to just €195,000 out of €2.64 million.

The NAO had flagged four main causes for this. First, difficulties in tracing the heirs of deceased defaulters, as well as foreign nationals who leave the island, with the risk that the amount due will eventually become time-barred.

Secondly charges in respect of judicial letters are initially borne by CSA. However, when a garnishee order is filed, the debtor is recharged with all the related expenses. If the amount remains outstanding, the costs are ultimately borne by CSA.

According to the Agency, garnishee orders served on all the major banks are generally effective. However, these can only be useful when the debtors hold a bank account with a sufficient balance in one of the respective commercial banks.

Finally the Agency cannot stop anyone from filing an application in Court, to open a new case when they still have outstanding dues, since according to CSA, this goes against fundamental human rights.

Three years down the line the NAO expressed its disappointment on the “insignificant progress” achieved to address this matter.

In 2024, from an opening balance of €4,690,700, only €363,639 (7.75%) was recouped, thus the collection rate remained practically unchanged.

The prescriptive period in respect of civil claims is five years. During this timeframe, if a judicial letter is filed in the Civil Courts, followed by a garnishee order, the latter will remain in force until payment is made, as the claim will not be time barred. A garnishee order can only be filed if the judicial letter has been successfully served.

However, reaching defaulters remains a significant challenge, especially if a foreign national leaves the island without providing an overseas address. In such case, no further action can be taken. CSA follows an official legal procedure to identify the heirs of deceased defaulters, claiming that this is not an easy task, since searches are to be requested through the Public Registry. Once these are identified, a judicial letter is filed, followed by a garnishee order in default of payment.

However, it was stated that the system lacks a function to mark deceased persons, thus a list of such individuals could not be generated for audit purposes.

In such absence, testing relating to deceased defaulters whose heirs were identified, was not possible.

From a sample of 62 outstanding claims reviewed for the purpose of this follow-up, the below shortcomings were identified. In some cases, action was taken in response to NAOs request. By way of example:

  • 14 cases were deemed time barred, prompting the write-off process.
  • In another five cases, write-off approval was requested in January 2025.
  • Seven claims settled during the first four months of the previous year (January to April 2024) only had the respective receipts issued in February 2025.
  • By April 2025, the garnishee orders related to seven claims were still in progress, despite judicial letters being issued between 2020 and 2024.

Gozo lawcourts

An analysis of the data provided by the Gozo Law Courts indicated that debt collection procedures were lacking.

From the 2021 opening balance, with a total of three hundred fifty pending fees, amounting to €309,909, only one fee of €5973 (0.19%) was settled during the year under review. CSA confirmed that Gozo did not follow the standard operating procedures outlining the collection process4, namely that of sending a final notice, as well as filing of judicial letters followed by garnishee orders, if the fees remained outstanding. This was evident from the three sampled debtors selected for review.

To address this issue, a part-time lawyer was contracted for one year as from January 2022, to help with debt collection, and to file judicial letters and garnishee orders against debtors.

Whilst acknowledging that action was taken to improve the debt collection, it was recommended that prior to incurring extra charges in pursuing fees, one checks whether the costs outweigh the respective benefits and also ensures that an adequate provision is taken accordingly.