The forest of Italian justice is pruned with machetes. The Government today gave the green light to a draft legislative decree for the reorganization of judicial offices. The goal is to erase 37 courts, 38 prosecution offices, all 220 branch offices and 674 justices of the peace offices. It is not expected no staff reduction, which will be relocated, but the State will still save a fair amount: just under three million for 2012, over 17 million next year and almost double that, 31 million, in 2014.
The real purpose of the reform, however, has nothing to do with finance in the first place, but with the efficiency of the entire Italian judicial system. “It is unthinkable and anachronistic to maintain a judicial geography that dates back to the time of the unification of Italy – said the Keeper of the Seals, Paula Severino, presenting the plan -. The fragmentation and waste of judicial resources has sometimes reached embarrassing levels. Just to give a few examples, there are branch sections in which as many as five units of administrative staff are employed over the course of an entire year to deal with just over a hundred proceedings, using structures that cost citizens only for out-of-pocket expenses (utilities for electricity, water, telephone and routine maintenance) around 50 euros a year. With this provision we will be able to save about a thousand buildings with their costs and their maintenance".
In any case, the cuts will not be indiscriminate. The courts located in the provincial capitals will not be affected. Another limit is represented by the so-called "rule of three", according to which there can be no fewer than three courts and prosecutors' offices for each district of the Court of Appeal. This constraint “prevented the suppression of offices clearly below the established standards – reads the press release from Palazzo Chigi -. Precisely the concurrence of these two rules has considerably restricted the scope of intervention on the total of 165 courts”.
Finally, another clarification from Minister Severino: “There was talk of a provision linked to the spending reviews, but this is not the case – he explains – due to a criterion of chronology and origin”. The reform projectit derives from the delegation that the previous Executive had and which this Government has inherited. A delegation that allowed for the reorganization of the courts and judicial areas, to make justice efficient also through judicial redistribution” with the aim of “maintaining only those principals with a size necessary and sufficient to give results. The courts with a number of magistrates from 20 to 28 magistrates can remain open but only if they are in an area of organized crime or whose movement would cause transport inconvenience".
