Csm in the field for the reduction of civil trial times

The Csm has approved the plan of the Csm to approach the Pnrr objectives of reducing the backlog (-90%) and, above all, of reducing the duration of civil trials (-40%), by June 2026. A package of measures the one launched by the plenum is now being examined by the Ministry of Justice, which will be able to translate its contents into a future legislative intervention, either in the form of an autonomous decree-law or of amendments to be presented in Parliament to measures under discussion.

The resolution first of all emphasises a series of critical issues, ranging from the deficit in staffing levels of both magistrates (currently 1,817 are missing) and administrative staff (currently 40%) to the need for a revision of the judicial geography for a more reasonable distribution of staff across the territory. But indispensable, in a context of significant procedural changes, would also be the strengthening of the conciliation at first instance, given the trend of registrations that have passed, in the courts, from 866,507 in 2019 to 927,349 in 2024 with an increase of more than 12% of new proceedings.

And yet the Csm is putting forward concrete proposals on both the structural and the emergency fronts. On the first front, the share of litigation on which it is possible to have an impact is that which sees as counterparty a public administration, in particular social security institutions, the Ministry of the Interior and the Revenue. With regard to the latter, the hypothesis is to provide for the extinction of the tax judgments pending before the Supreme Court with the subject matter of the debts included in the 2022-2024 facilitated settlement declaration as a result of the payment of the first or single instalment.

Likewise, a solution could easily be found for two other critical issues: the procedures for the recognition ofcitizenship that clog up some judicial offices and those for the recognition of international protection that have arisen after a refusal contested in court.

Among the provisional measures is the immediate filling of managerial and semi-directorial positions in the most difficult locations and, above all, the recruitment of magistrates retired from 2020 to date (about 550 in the civil sector). But a hand would also be lent by the remote application of no more than 500 magistrates in only those cases that have reached a decision without an oral instruction, magistrates who should, however, be on duty in offices where the situation is not critical.