Civil cases, mini-reinforcements for the most troubled offices
Decree Law 117/2025 focuses on a more intensive and targeted use of existing forces: incentives for the transfer of magistrates and remote deployment. It is also counting on new recruits and honorary officers
3' min read
3' min read
With less than a year to go before the deadline, set for 30 June 2026, to reach the targets set in the NRP, the government is trying to make up for the delays on the civil justice targets with reinforcements aimed at the most difficult judicial offices. And it does so mainly by concentrating existing resources on the Pnrr targets: it is counting on a more intensive and precise use of in-service magistrates (incentivised with allowances) and honorary judges, as well as on the contribution of trainee magistrates.
These are the key points of the Justice Decree Law (117 of 2025), in force since 9 August and submitted to the Chamber of Deputies for conversion into law. Meanwhile, the path to its implementation is about to start, with the identification by the Superior Council of the Judiciary of the judicial offices that will be recipients of the 'aid'.
The situation
These measures are necessary, given the distance still to be covered in order to achieve the targets set by the NRP for civil justice: the 40% cut, compared to 2019, of the time in the three levels of justice (calculated using the disposition time formula, which estimates the foreseeable duration); and the 90% reduction of pending trials at the end of 2022 registered between 2017 and 2022 in the courts and from 2018 to 2022 in the courts of appeal (while the intermediate disposal target set for the end of 2024 has been achieved).
According to analyses by the Ministry of Justice, 200,000 proceedings in the courts and 35,000 in the courts of appeal still needed to be settled at the beginning of the year in order to reach the final goal of eliminating the backlog.
But the most critical front is that of durations: at the end of 2024, disposition time had been reduced by 20.1 per cent compared to 2019; however, in the courts, the decline had stopped, marking 488 days compared to 486 in 2023 (see Il Sole 24 Ore of Monday, 12 May).
