Justice, for the first time the Court of Cassation sanctions excessively long appeals

Costs increased for violation of thelength limit of the appeal. For the first time, the Court of Cassation applies Ministerial Decree 110 of 2023 and 'penalises', with the maximum value of the reference scale, the party that filed an appeal of 120 pages and 200,000 characters, well beyond what was provided for in the decree that implemented the new, because amended by the Cartabia reform, Article 121 of the Code of Civil Procedure according to which 'all court documents shall be drafted in a clear and concise manner'.

Ordinance 802 of the First Civil Section recalls that decree 110/23 lays down the maximum length of the writ of summons, including that of the Court of Cassation, providing for a format that does not exceed the limit of 80,000 characters, corresponding to approximately 40 pages in the predetermined format (12-point font, 1.5 line spacing, 2.5 cm horizontal margins), excluding spaces, and excluding from the calculation the initial parts, including the summary of the grounds, the conclusions and the parts of the writ following them. Exception possible, but defence counsel must explain the reasons for it.

The decree deals with the limits of judicial acts drafted by lawyers, but later, with the corrective measures of the reform of the Code of Civil Procedure, the scanning was also extended to magistrates. At least as a principle, but without arriving at a precise declination, case by case, and without introducing sanctioning measures in the event of non-compliance.

The violation of the limits of size translates into a transgression of the principles of clarity and conciseness in the presentation of procedural documents, a principle applicable to appeals in cassation, and which, as a general rule, results in the inadmissibility of the appeal when the outcome is an obscure or deficient presentation of the facts of the case or the unintelligibility of the objections raised to the judgment under appeal.

However, the order further clarifies, the mere violation of the size limits has the effect of increasing the court fees. However, the 2023 decree does not indicate the settlement parameters in this case and, the Court of Cassation further observes, the reference must be to the discipline of the forensic parameters (Ministerial Decree 55 of 2014, last amended by Decree 147 of 2022).