Cap. 55 Art. 94BReview.

(1)(a) Review officers shall review the acts and the Chief Notary shall review the wills:

Provided that the Notarial Council may elect an Official

Reviewer to review the wills in accordance with an agreement between the Chief Notary and the Notarial Council.

(b) During the review, care shall be taken to ascertain whether all obligations imposed on notaries by this or any other law have been complied with, especially the provisions of the law relating to the drawing up and preservation of notarial acts, registers and indexes, and the payment of duty on documents and other taxes.

(2) When the review is completed, the review officer and the Chief Notary, as the case may be, shall draw up separate reports in the manner prescribed by regulations and they shall file them in the Registry of the Court.

(3) In their reports, the review officer and the Chief Notary shall list the notary’s breaches of this Act and of any other law which are punishable by the Court, and they shall propose to the Court the appropriate disciplinary punishments it could apply and any directions that it could give to the notary.

(4) The notary shall have the right, by means of an application filed within thirty days from the date when a report is served on him, to demand that the Court set aside in whole or in part the report of the review officer or the Chief Notary. The application shall be served on the Attorney General who shall have thirty days to reply:

Provided that when a report is filed by the Official Reviewer or the Chief Notary, which appears to the Court to not be in breach of any laws, the Court shall, by means of a decree duly served on the notary and the Attorney General, confirm that report.

(5) Where the notary has contested a report or any part thereof, the Court shall consider the notary’s written submissions contesting the report or part thereof and the Attorney General’s reply, if any, and shall proceed by a decree to confirm or otherwise the in camera reports of the review officer and, or, the Chief Notary and shall award the notary the disciplinary punishments of admonition and reprimand or fine (ammenda) and may give any other direction in terms of article 124.

(6) (a) Where the notary has not contested a report, the Court shall proceed to confirm it and award the disciplinary punishments of admonition and reprimand or fine, and give any other directions, unless it appears to the Court that the report contains a manifest error of law or of fact in which case the Court shall through the Registrar send the report back to the review officer or the Chief Notary for his reconsideration. Following his reconsideration, the Court shall decide whether to accept, reject or vary the review officer’s or Chief Notary’s report and the disciplinary punishments or directions any of them may have proposed.

(b) The provisions of sub-articles (2), (3), (4) and (5) shall apply with regard to the reconsidered mutatis mutandis report of the review officer or the Chief Notary.

(7) Where it appears from the report of the review officer or the Chief Notary that the notary is liable to the punishment of suspension from or deprivation of office, even if the notary has not contested the report, the Court shall by decree served on the notary and the Attorney General order that the notary and Attorney General make written submissions on that part of the report that may give rise to either of the said disciplinary punishments, and shall also set a date for the hearing of the case.

(8) Where the notary fails to contest the report or, after he has done so, the facts alleged in the report are proved during a sitting of the Court, the Court shall, notwithstanding any other provision of this or any other law, opt either to apply the disciplinary punishment of suspension from or deprivation of office in terms of the relevant provisions of this Act or to partially incapacitate the notary for a period not exceeding six months until he regularizes his position and it shall also award a fine (ammenda) of fifty euro (€50) per week or part of a week until he regularizes his position.

(9) Where a notary has regularized his position, the provisions of article 94A(20) shall apply. mutatis mutandis

(10) (a) The review officer or the Chief Notary may also at any time during the period of presentation and, or, review request the notary to present the registers of acts or wills and their respective indexes for the basis year under review.

(b) The review officer or the Chief Notary shall not keep the registers and their respective indexes for more than twenty-four hours, and he shall be responsible for their custody until they are returned to the notary.

(c) If the notary fails to present the registers to the review officer or the Chief Notary when so requested, the provisions of article 94A(18) shall mutatis mutandis apply.

(11) (a) For all intents and purposes of the law, the decisions as well as the judicial acts and written pleadings of the Court of Revision shall be scanned by the Registrar of the Civil Courts and Tribunals, and sent by electronic mail from the Registrar of the Civil Courts and Tribunals to the notary and the Attorney General, and this shall constitute valid service of such decisions, judicial acts and written pleadings of the Court of Revision.

(b) The notary and the Attorney General who receive a scanned copy in accordance with paragraph (a) of this sub-article shall, within seven days from receipt of such electronic mail, confirm receipt by means of electronic mail to the Registrar of the Civil Courts and Tribunals of the acts mentioned in paragraph (a) of this sub-article: Provided that if the Registrar does not receive such confirmation from the notary and/or the Attorney General, the Registrar shall proceed with service of the acts in accordance with the provisions of article 187 of the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure.