Courts slow down: Pnrr target further away for civil cases

The increase in new dossiers mainly concerned certain matters within the jurisdiction of the immigration sections set up in the district courts. Firstly, citizenship rights: applications for recognition rose by 89 per cent. To put a stop to this influx, Decree Law 36 of 28 March 2025 restricted the possibility of applying to those who have Italian parents and grandparents (previously, however, there were no generational limits).

Particularly affected by the increase in citizenship proceedings is the Court of Venice, where durations have lengthened by 58% compared to 2023 (by 123% compared to 2019), rising to 1,167 days. Requests for recognition come mainly from Brazilian citizens who are descendants of Italian emigrants who left Veneto between the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. 'Between 2022 and 2024 they increased by 1138%,' explains Salvatore Laganà, who was president of the court of Venice until 31 December 2024. 'There are currently 36,000 and each request concerns an average of ten people. It is a disproportionate number that represents two thirds of the entire ordinary litigation. But if we unbundle it, the picture changes completely: in labour the definition times are in fact 238 days, in the family section 398, and in the business section 433'.

The Court of Trieste feels the weight of new registrations, which in 2024 recorded a disposition time of 1,207 days (+28.4% compared to 2023 and +50.9% compared to 2019): "Last year - explains the president, Igor Maria Rifiorati - we had 7,408 new proceedings registered, mainly in matters of international protection and citizenship, against the 4,400 average of the previous five years. A flow that on a small court such as ours has had a devastating effect, although we have also seen an increase in settlements. With these numbers and barring exceptional interventions, it is impossible for us to meet the target of cutting disposition time'.

The increase in registrations in citizenship and international protection matters has also weighed on the Court of L'Aquila. "Since 2023 there has been a surge and the registrations in these two matters have accounted for more than 50 per cent of the entire ordinary civil litigation," says Elvira Buzzelli, president of the Court of L'Aquila, where times have increased by 111 per cent. "Unfortunately," continues Buzzelli, "the data reflect the structural difficulties of a district court that has a staff of only 14 magistrates and that in 2013, suffered shortages of 50 per cent: there are currently eight of us. The extra-district application, despite repeated requests, has not been renewed".

The reduction in time also appears difficult for large and traditionally efficient offices, such as the Milan Court, where the 2024 disposition time is 418 days, below the national average but stable compared to 417 days in 2019. Here, too, we note the increase in immigration cases: 'The number of appeals registered in 2024 was 6,943,' observes the president, Fabio Roia, 'compared to 2,100 in 2021. This weighs down all the indices: the immigration section has about 12,000 pending appeals out of the 40,909 of the whole court'. But Roia widens the discourse: 'The new scanning of procedural terms introduced by the Cartabia reform also has an impact on time: the introductory phase has been lengthened, in order to arrive at the first hearing with all the elements to decide. Whether this rite will have a deflative effect will be appreciated in some time, after the Pnrr expires'.