Hiring of retired magistrates to cut the duration of cases starts

One of the latest measures put in place by the Ministry of Justice to achieve, or at least come close to achieving, the target of cutting the 40% duration of civil trials at every level of judgement, starts with the Csm call for applications open from Saturday and will last for a month. With the Pnrr decree, in fact, now under discussion in Parliament, ordinary retired magistrates who, at the time of application, have not yet reached the age of seventy-five, have been given the opportunity to participate, on application, in the dismissal programme of backlogged civil proceedings.

According to the ministry's latest monitoring, updated to the first half of 2025, a27.8 per cent drop was achieved, however still far from the target, so much so that a figure of just over 30 per cent is now considered much more likely, if not certain.

In any case, following up one of the concrete solutions put forward by the SCC, but with months of delay, the decree law provides for the possibility of appointing200 auxiliary magistrates, on an extraordinary basis, by decree of the Minister of Justice adopted following a resolution approved by the SCC. The magistrates are assigned to the offices with the greatest difficulties in achieving the Pnrr targets and have a term of office until 31 December 2026, thus exceeding the June deadline agreed with Europe. The offices to which the 200 magistrates are to be assigned are 48 in all and rangefrom Agrigento to Venice, the largest of which is undoubtedly Naples.

The remuneration is set at the amount of200 euro per defined procedure, with a maximum limit of 100 definitions during the period of office. As for the method of payment, it will be up to the head of the judicial office to certify the proceedings defined by the retired magistrate.

Grounds for exclusion include havingconvictions for non-culpable offences or imprisonment for contraventions, without prejudice to the effects of rehabilitation; having been subjected to preventive or personal security measures; having been subjected to sanctions disciplinary sanctions exceeding the measure of censure.