Honorary magistrates, between vacancies and postponement of competences, the reform begins

A few days ago, on 1 May, the reform law on the honorary judiciary came into force, setting out a sort of 'organic statute' for that large segment of the category made up of stabilised magistrates. At the urging of Europe and the opening of an infringement procedure, a reference discipline has been found on a series of critical points, from remuneration to insurance forms passing through incompatibility and competences. However, there remain knots to be unravelled that are also identified, among other things, in the analysis made by the Criminal Chambers.

With reference, for example, to the larger justice of the peace offices (the 12 that also have a managerial post in their organic plan), the rate of vacancy is almost 70 per cent (with 395 presences and 856 vacancies out of the 1,251 foreseen) With Milan, Turin, Bologna and Naples well above 70 per cent. Compared to the 6,000 honorary magistrates currently provided for, but not allocated between offices and functions, there are 1,226 justices of the peace, 1,807 Got and 1,587 vpo in service, with 1,380 vacancies, according to the SCM's monitoring. Compared to the last selection procedure announced by the Csm on 11 April 2023 for 657 units, in January 2025 there were 83 resolutions for the appointment of new justices of the peace sent to the ministry. After some resignations, 77 of these judges will remain in service. For all the others, the procedure is still ongoing.

The Ministry of Justice, taking into account the open chasms in the workforce, has thus been forced to take corrective action, announcing the postponement of the new competences of justices of the peace. The postponement, most likely from the current 31 October 2025 to June (at least) 2026, will have to be included in a future regulation and will concern the exclusive assignment of the highly litigious subject matter such as domain, of the authority to judge cases on movable property up to 30 thousand euro in value and on compensation for damages from accidents up to 50 thousand euro. A further step after the previous increase is operative from 1 March 2023, with the Cartabia reform, with a doubling from 5 thousand to 10 thousand for disputes on movable property and from 20 thousand to 25 thousand for those on accidents.

In any case, the stabilised honorary magistrates covered by the law will gradually be exhausted, while newly recruited magistrates (Gop/Vpo with a strictly temporary assignment) are formally called upon to work no more than two days a week (Orlando reform), but in Rome, for example, honorary magistrates themselves report workloads that saturate the entire week. For this last category, now numerically less important but in perspective central, a European front remains open, with the Commission issuing a supplementary reasoned opinion last October to specify and deepen the grievances of this last group of honorary magistrates.