Time and costs discourage litigation. Almost one million people give up
Citizens are involved, both as plaintiffs and as defendants, especially in disputes involving the family
2' min read
2' min read
There are 900,000 Italians who have given up litigation, partly because of excessive costs. The figure emerges from the ISTAT report on civil justice which, with a time reference to 2023, highlights how just under a million citizens have avoided recourse to the courts for a variety of reasons: the disproportion between the assumed costs and the possible benefits that could be obtained (21.5%), the risk of losing too much time (17.5%), the complexity and cumbersomeness of the procedures (10.8%), the consideration of the uncertainty of the outcome (10.1%), the choice of resolving the dispute on one's own account (10.1%) and the limited economic possibilities (8.6%).
Family litigation
Citizens are involved, both as plaintiffs and as defendants, mainly in litigation involving family. There are 3.5 million people who have been involved in this type of litigation in their lifetime (7.1 per cent of the population over the age of 18), corresponding to 41.5 per cent of citizens involved in civil cases.
Just over one million claim to have been involved in a labour dispute (2.1% of the population and 12% of those involved in civil cases). Next, in descending order, there are lawsuits related to traffic accidents and road traffic regulations, which involved 776 thousand citizens (1.6% of the population); disputes related to debts, financial and corporate problems, which involved 598 thousand citizens (1.2% of the population); 380 thousand citizens over 18 years of age then declare having been involved in a dispute related to neighbourhood and condominium (0.8% of the adult population).
Exhausted then, Istat warns, is the impact of the Covid on the justice system. There is no decrease in the overall level of cases even for those initiated in the year 2020. Moreover, says the report, a comparison of the three-year period 2020-2022 with the period before the 2017-2019 pandemic shows that the slight decrease seen in 2021 (delayed effect of the pandemic) is largely absorbed already in 2022, with the number of cases initiated exceeding that of the 2017-2019 period (+10%).
The digital
Interesting is the explanation that relies on the flywheel effect of digital. In fact, the result "was determined by the possibility technically guaranteed by the telematic civil process, active since 2014. Decree-Law No. 11 of 8 March 2020, addressing the emergency of the pandemic in a timely manner, extended the use of the telematic tool also to court constitutions that had originally been excluded."
