How many times have we heard that justice in our country is slow or does not work. Leaving aside the single case, various statistical indicators of recent years, in particular from 2014 to 2020, starting from the entry into force of the new judicial geography, at least partially disavow that commonplace.
If it is true that in the last year the pandemic has also slowed down the legal machinery, with an overall reduction of 24% of the definitions or the conclusion of the civil trials of first and second degree in 2020 compared to 2019, which has corresponded to a simultaneous decrease of 22% of the disputes that occurred (Source DG Stat Ministry of Justice), it is also true that the institutions are working on various reforms. First of all, the reform of the civil process which is currently under discussion in parliament. Among the main innovations of the reform, the enhancement of alternative tools to the process for the resolution of disputes such as assisted negotiation, arbitration and mediation. Another strategic point for the simplification of the civil process is to implement the telematic innovation introduced during the Covid emergency.
Returning to the numbers, fromanalysis of the data of the Ministry of Justice relating to the years from 2014 to 2020, Adnkronos and Expleo have obtained interesting trends on civil justice. In particular, starting from 2014 the number of disputes settled during the year has always been higher than the number of those that came into being in the same year, as demonstrated by the Clearance Rate, which is always higher than 100. This indicator, expressed as a percentage calculated by the ratio between defined and supervening proceedings, it is used to monitor the ability of judicial systems and individual offices to dispose of supervening proceedings. In the last three years of data analysis, the Clearance Rate fluctuated from a minimum of 102.80% in 2017 for the North West, to a maximum of 105.96% recorded overall in 2018 in the courts of Central Italy.
With the exception of 2020, the year in which the pandemic exploded, in previous years also the time for defining pending proceedings at the end of a year has decreased for all Italian geographical areas. For example, in the North West the Disposition Time, the index that indicates the time needed to dispose of pending proceedings, dropped from 301 days in 2016 to 258 in 2019, which represents the best value recorded at the national geographical area level. The same indicator in the South has been reduced from over 548 days in 2014 to 482 in 2019. In short, still high numbers, but the path taken seems to be the right one. A path that with the entry into force of the judicial reform should be increasingly downhill.
Puglia, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Molise, are the regions where the highest number of civil disputes occurred in the 2014-2020 period with 4.8 million cases out of a national total of almost 17 million. A figure confirmed also in 2020 with over 546,000 new proceedings against 422,000 in the Center and 419,000 in the North-West, 290,000 in the North-East and 226,000 in the Islands.
Crossing the flow data of the proceedings with the population (source Istat) in the South there are 4.1 civil proceedings per 100 inhabitants, in the Center and in the Islands 3.60, in the North-West it drops to 2.70 in the North-East at 2.50.
In 2020, thanks to the pandemic, the slowdowns of justice made the courts take a step backwards with respect to the disposal of the load of civil proceedings, especially those with over 50,000 cases that occurred during the year. We can observe how the best of the big courts, namely that of Milan, recorded a Clearance rate (percentage calculated from the ratio between settled and supervening proceedings) of 103% last year. Rome is followed by 99%, Naples 98.5%, Turin 96%.
Percentages therefore mostly negative, in contrast to the positive trends of the last years 2014-2019. In that period, the best performances for each court were obtained for that of Naples in 2015 with a clearance rate of over 130%; Rome in the same year with 106%, Milan reached its top in 2014 with 110%, Turin in 2015 with 107%. In terms of time needed to dispose of pending processes (Disposition Time) referring to 2020, the Piedmontese capital leaps to the top of the ranking with 276 days, followed by Milan (366 days), Rome (475 days) and Naples (633 days).
Excluding the last year marked by Covid, previously the large courts have recorded much better performances, with much shorter time to dispose of pending proceedings. Specifically, the year of the best performances was 2018 for Milan 261 days (109,000 cases), Rome 356 days (181,000 cases), Naples 442 days (98,000 cases) and 2019 for Turin with 176 days but compared to less than 90 thousand cases that have occurred.
Campania the most contentious region with over 243 thousand civil disputes
In terms of flows of proceedings that occurred in 2020, the most contentious region of Italy is Campania with over 243,000 disputes. The same figure compared with the regional population, however, I see Calabria in first place with 4.4 cases per 100 inhabitants. Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige are the least contentious regions with figures of around 2 per 100 inhabitants
The main issues of litigation in the South in the last year were ordinary civil (22%) which includes different categories including separations and divorces which account for 28%, Other procedures (20%) with a clear prevalence of issues related to preventive technical assessment which accounts for 74% and then disputes related to Labor and Social Security (17%).
53 thousand divorces in 2020, at the top Sardinia, Sicily and Liguria
In 2020, over 53,000 divorce procedures were received in Italy with 52% of cases of joint divorce. Sardinia, Sicily and Liguria are the three regions with the highest ratio between divorces occurring in the year and number of inhabitants, as emerges from the Adnkronos and Expleo analysis on data from the Ministry of Justice 2014-2020.
The North West area is the one where there have been more divorce and separation proceedings between spouses in Italy. In the period 2014-2020 between Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d’Aosta they saw 27% of total divorces with a number of registrations equal to over 300 thousand. However, this trend is down by 34% compared to 2014.
In the ranking of divorces follows the South with over 271 thousand, the Center with about 225 thousand, the North East with 193 thousand and the islands with 147,622. Comparing the data to the total population of the individual geographic areas, it turns out that in Sicily and Sardinia there is the highest number of separations and divorces with 2.8 cases per 1000 inhabitants, followed by the South with 2.4, North-West and Center ( 2 cases), Northeast 1.9.
By analyzing the data, interesting cultural and sociological trends can be discovered. In the 2014-2020 period, the end of a marriage occurs mainly with a joint divorce, especially in the North-West regions, a resolution much less used in the South and in the Islands where disputed divorce prevails. In the same way, at the level of separations the consensual one prevails over the judicial one, with the exception once again of the South where the two voices are almost equal and of the Islands where judicial separation is mostly used.
By comparing the 2019 Ministry of Justice data relating to divorces and separations with those of Istat concerning marriages of the same year, we discover that in Italy unions are superior to separations. But not in all regions. Liguria, Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Sardinia are the regions where in 2019 the concluded marriages exceeded the new “yes”. Basilicata, on the other hand, has the highest ratio (about 40%) between celebrated marriages and divorces / separations.
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Fewer and fewer work cases, since 2014 -20 thousand in Campania and Puglia
In Italy, work cases are constantly decreasing. In the 2014-2020 period, they fell sharply especially in Campania and Puglia with almost 20 thousand fewer cases, Lombardy with about 11 thousand fewer, Sicily 9 thousand fewer, Lazio about 8 thousand. This is what still emerges from the Adnkronos and Expleo analysis. Interesting data as these are the 5 regions that record the highest overall number of proceedings related to work and social security: the average of the 5 regions in question (Campania, Puglia, Lazio, Lombardy, Sicily) ranges from a maximum of 46,374 occurred in the 2014 to a minimum of 42,328 in 2020.
Among the other regions we note the case of Molise which, in the face of a small total number of labor cases (between 1900 and 2600 per year), leaps to the top of the national ranking with 8 cases per thousand inhabitants if the data of proceedings against the regional population.
In second place Calabria with 7.5 cases per thousand inhabitants and then Lazio with 7 per thousand. The least contentious for work causes are Friuli, Emilia Romagna and Trentino Alto Adige, all with less than 2 cases per thousand inhabitants. Probably in these three regions, those who lose their jobs manage to relocate quite quickly, leaving aside appeals and civil cases.
One of the most recurring reasons in employment cases is the non-payment of salaries, overtime, thirteenth, severance pay. In this sense, the proceedings that have arisen due to injunction in 2020 in relation to the population still see Molise (penultimate in Italy in terms of number of residents) at the top of the rankings with 5 cases out of a thousand inhabitants. In second place Lazio but with a ratio equal to less than half (2 cases per thousand inhabitants).
It should also be noted that in the private sector, in the period 2014-2020, there is on average a number of disputes arising for dismissals as many as 14 times higher than the public sector. In the matter of civil lawsuits for dismissal (private and public) in 2020 the most contentious regions in relation to the resident population were: Lombardy with 1.8 cases per 10,000 inhabitants, Lazio 1.7, Liguria 1.6.
Resilient Italian companies, since 2014 -29% bankruptcy applications
The fact that Italian companies in general have become resilient is shown by the data relating to bankruptcy applications, which recorded a reduction of 29% from 2014 to 2019. A figure confirmed also in the following two years with a decrease of 24.2% in the proceedings that occurred in that civil matters. It goes from 30,332 in 2019 to 22,985 in 2020, a decrease due on the one hand to the general decrease in proceedings that have arisen linked to the pandemic, and on the other to government interventions that in the last period have buffered various situations of insolvency and corporate crises.
The North-West is the geographic area where there was the greatest decrease with 28% fewer bankruptcy filings. By comparing the data of the Ministry of Justice with the number of companies by geographical area provided by Istat, we discover the impact of bankruptcy applications on the territorial entrepreneurial landscape. In 2019 the negative record belongs to Lazio with 10.2 bankruptcy applications per thousand companies, followed by Abruzzo with 9.9, Campania 9.3, Basilicata 8.8, Molise 8.6. The 5 regions with the most resilient companies are: Liguria with 5 bankruptcy applications per thousand companies, Piedmont 4.9, Friuli Venezia Giulia 4.3, Valle d’Aosta 3.6, Trentino Alto Adige 2.5. Also noteworthy is the data of Lombardy which in 2019, with over 800 thousand companies surveyed, recorded only 6.2 per thousand of bankruptcy applications.
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