MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Antoine Cremona, Clement Mifsud-Bonnici and Chiara Frendo, Ganado Advocates
3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate There is no statutory requirement to provide clients with a cost estimate of the potential litigation at the outset.
Defendants can also be sued if they are established or physically located outside the jurisdiction. If they are located in an EU member state, service of judicial documents may take place in accordance with the procedure laid down in Regulation (EU) No 2020/1784 on the service in the member states of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial mat- ters (recast). If they are located in a country that is a Contracting State to the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in civil or commercial matters, then ser- vice may take place in accordance with the procedure laid out therein. 3.6 Failure to Respond The failure of a defendant to respond will result in them being contumacious (that is, in default), provided that they have been validly served with the judicial act instituting the proceedings. At law, contumacy is deemed to be an automatic con- testation, and not an admission of a lawsuit. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions The Collective Proceedings (Competition) Act (Chap- ter 520 of the laws of Malta) and the Representative Actions (Consumers) Act (Act No XVII of 2023) which transposed the Representative Actions Directive (Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of con- sumers), allow consumer class actions, group actions, as well as representative actions, where a party is in breach of laws on, amongst others, competition, product safety, consumer protection, data protec- tion, utilities, financial services, product and medicine safety, environment, and others. Proceedings may be conducted by a representative plaintiff on behalf of multiple plaintiffs. In the case of consumers, repre- sentative actions may be brought by qualified entities, generally designated organisations or public bodies representing consumers. All collective actions and representative actions are opt-in.
4. Pre-Trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions
Plaintiffs may seek the issue of interim court meas- ures, known as precautionary warrants, in support of lawsuits, but only as security for claims made on the merits. The precautionary warrants may only be issued if the essential requisites particular to each warrant are satisfied, and each warrant is subject to any proce- dural formalities or exceptions provided by law. They are issued on an ex parte application confirmed on the oath of the plaintiff. They are generally granted within 24 to 48 hours without the need for a hearing (except for the warrant of prohibitory injunction). There are various types of warrants available under Maltese law. Garnishee Order A garnishee order would require that moneys or mov- able property held by third parties for a debtor are attached and deposited in court. The third parties must be generally present in Malta, and would typi- cally include credit or financial institutions. Such third parties would be duty bound to deposit any such funds or movable property in court within 19 days A warrant of seizure orders the removal or attach- ment of property of the debtor, which is subsequently seized under court authority on a precautionary basis. This is done with a view to the property being eventu- ally sold by means of a judicial sale by auction once the executing creditor is in possession of an executive title, such as a final and binding judgment or arbitral award. This warrant can seize not only tangible mova- bles, but also intangible movables such as shares in a company owned by the debtor (which would block future transfers of shares, any pledging of the shares, and certain internal reorganisations). from service of the garnishee order. Warrant of Seizure of Movables
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