If your spouse is suing you for child support, or someone is chasing after you to repay your debts, just keep your fingers crossed that their lawyers do not send the court notification to your work place.
This is because official court letters, delivered by the navy blue-clad court marshals, could well end up in your colleagues’ hands without so much as an envelope to keep your dirty linen a private affair.
Although the court marshals ask for the specific recipient when delivering the letters, they often end up giving them to the first person who happens to open the door in the recipient’s absence, with the consequence that your colleagues or even your boss may end up knowing all about your family arguments, and any other sort of litigation you may be facing.
According to Data Protection Commissioner Paul Mifsud Cremona, while this is not a breach of privacy given the public nature of court notifications, it is “a question of prudence” that should be exercised in the citizens’ regard and which raises issues of concern.
“Court notifications are public by law, everyone can access them at the court registry, although I disagree even with that,” a concerned data protection commissioner said. “I’ve discussed the issue with the court authorities and their lawyer to find ways how to make deliver this kind of notifications more prudently, such as using envelopes.”
Court marshals are duty bound to deliver the notifications wherever they are instructed to by the lawyers of the opposing party.
“Lawyers should not abuse that right and only resort to sending notifications at one’s work place only in cases where recipients can never be found at home,” Mifsud Cremona said. “Legally, they can do it, but they should act ethically when considering this practice.”
According to the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure, “the acts of every court shall be accessible to all persons, and copies thereof shall be given out at the request of any person.”
The same code states that the notification should be delivered to the person on whom the pleading is to be served “by leaving such copy at the place of residence or business or place of work”.
The court may even post a copy of the written notification at the individual’s locality, in the government gazette and on daily newspapers if the individual remains untraceable.
So next time you sense that family quarrel may end up in court or some legal squabble coming up, make sure that the little army of navy blue court functionaries find you in person. They will only hand you over a piece of paper, but you would rather read some of the things written on it on your own.