A Damning Exposé on the Systemic Neglect of Minors’ Voices in Malta’s Protracted Family Court Sagas
Jacqueline Padovani Grima
In my previous exposé on the systemic failures plaguing Malta’s Family Court under Judge Jacqueline Padovani Grima, I highlighted the glaring biases and procedural injustices that tilt the scales against fathers, often turning custody battles into prolonged financial and emotional sieges. But today, I delve deeper into an even more damning indictment: the utter disregard for the voices of minor children trapped in these drawn-out proceedings.
For years, sometimes stretching into half a decade or more, these vulnerable kids are sidelined, their wishes ignored, their emotional pleas dismissed as irrelevant in a courtroom that claims to prioritize their “best interests.” This isn’t justice; it’s institutional neglect bordering on cruelty, and Judge Padovani Grima stands at the epicenter.
Malta’s legal framework demands that children’s voices be heard. The Minor Protection (Alternative Care) Act explicitly requires that the views of minors be determined “with sensitivity and in a manner which does not cause harm,” ensuring their perspectives are represented in decisions affecting them. A Children’s Advocate, a specially trained lawyer is supposed to amplify those voices, making sure kids aren’t just pawns in adult conflicts.
https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/602/eng
By age 14, Maltese law even grants children a formal say in matters concerning them, with the paramount principle always being the child’s best interests.
https://tfal.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Minor-Protection-Act-ENG-Document-A4-Final.pdf
Yet, under Judge Padovani Grima’s watch, these safeguards seem to evaporate like morning mist over Valletta Harbor.
Take the mounting evidence from recent cases and reports. A bombshell study released in 2025 revealed that Malta’s family court system is “failing to listen to children’s voices and to act in ways that reflect the reality of their lives.” Children navigating these proceedings describe being “routinely denied a voice in decisions that shape their young lives,” left in limbo while adults bicker.
In one of Judge Padovani Grima’s own rulings from May 2025, exclusive custody of a minor child was granted to the mother with access suspended for the father, without a single mention of the child’s wishes being solicited, heard, or factored in.
https://ecourts.gov.mt/onlineservices/Judgements/PrintPdf?CaseJudgementId=153397&JudgementId=0
The decision hinged on the father’s absence, but where was the probe into what the nearly school-aged kid actually wanted? Silence.
Another 2019 judgment under her gavel adjusted custody after children “insisted” on living with their mother, but their voices came secondhand through parental testimony, not direct input.
https://ecourts.gov.mt/onlineservices/Judgements/PrintPdf?CaseJudgementId=117863&JudgementId=0
No child advocate’s report, no in-camera hearing. Just assumptions piled on delays.
These aren’t isolated slip-ups; they’re symptomatic of a pattern. Accounts from affected families paint a picture of proceedings dragging on for months or years, with pendente lite applications for child access left unresolved, depriving kids of stability and balanced parental bonds. One-sided decrees favor one parent (often the mother) without affording the other a chance to respond, all while the children languish unheard.
Fathers report being stonewalled, with adjournments granted liberally to female litigants, inflating maintenance claims and prolonging the agony.
And the kids? They’re collateral damage, their emotional needs subordinated to procedural gamesmanship. As one X user aptly put it in a broader critique of family courts: “The family court justice system is failing to listen to children’s voices.”
Judge Padovani Grima’s defenders might point to her storied career as the first woman appointed to Malta’s judiciary in 1991, a family law “expert” since her elevation to the Superior Courts. But longevity doesn’t excuse complacency. Amid reforms stressing transparency, her handling of cases reeks of outdated bias, where children’s wishes are an afterthought, if thought of at all.
Jacqueline Padovani Grima
How many more kids must suffer in silence before accountability kicks in? This isn’t just inefficiency; it’s a betrayal of the very minors the court swears to protect.
Judge Grima, your bench isn’t a throne for unilateral edicts. It’s a forum where even the smallest voices deserve amplification. Step aside, or let reforms sweep you out. Malta’s children can’t afford another year of your deafening indifference.
