Author: Dr Eleonora Ebau, Research Fellow at the Department of Law, UniTo.
Definition and legal framework of the Office for Proceedings
The Office for Proceedings (OP) is an organisational structure (provided for in Art. 16-octies of Decree Law 179/2012), instituted in the General Courts and Courts of Appeal with the aim of ensuring the reasonable duration of proceedings through the innovation of organisational models, increased human resources and a more efficient use of information and communication technologies.
The OP has been implemented in Italy in order to meet two main needs.
On the one hand, in light of the positive experiences in other countries (the United Kingdom, the USA, France and Spain), the need for judges to have a support team to help them carry out their judicial and other related activities has also been recognised in Italy.
On the other hand, there emerged a clear need to employ competent personnel for the application of new tools resulting from technological innovation, as well as to rethink the organisation of judicial work.
It is in this context, therefore, that the OP, a body composed of judicial assistants to assist the judge, has been established and the human and material resources to “supplement” the judicial offices have been reorganised.
The recent Cartabia Reform provided for the compulsory establishment of the OP in all Italian courts, which was to be fully and systematically regulated and instituted also at the Court of Cassation, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the aforementioned Court, as well as in the criminal trial courts.
Implementation of the CCO with the Cartabia reform
In order to implement the OP, the Cartabia Reform intervened on various fronts, involving various parties also from outside the Ministry of Justice.
First of all, with the funds allocated to Italy under the NRRP, 8,250 temporary OP workers were hired and started work in February 2022, forming the “new OPs” in the various law courts.
Additionally, with a ministerial call for applications in 2021, public universities in Italy were invited to collaborate in order to promote the full functionality of OPs throughout the country.
The university projects resulting from this call ran from approximately April 2022 to September 2023.
Specifically, the universities have contributed not only by training the young legal professionals who will potentially fill the role of OP officers, but also by designing the IT and organisational innovations necessary to make the justice system more efficient.
Ministerial call: priorities for action in implementing the Office for Proceedings
The ministerial call provided for well-defined priorities for action for universities.
Specifically, priority 1 entails “defining operational modules for the establishment and implementation of the Office for Proceedings“, namely surveying existing OPs in order to identify their composition, functioning, organisational framework, strengths and any potential problems.
Priority 2 provides for “the identification of models for managing the flow of incoming cases and case backlogs at the law courts“. In other words, this priority aims to outline working methodologies to clear backlogs and prevent them from reforming.
In addition to lawyers, this priority also involves business and IT professionals in order to employ new management models. It also envisages the application of artificial intelligence and the creation of new databases.
Priority 3 concerns “activation and testing of models and plans related to the previous actions”.
Lastly, under priority 4, universities will see to the “redefinition of training models and the consolidation of relations between stakeholders”.
In essence, therefore, universities will be required to provide new experiential teaching methodologies involving the learning of transferable skills for students, also through collaborative projects between universities and the law courts.
Other bodies involved in the establishment and implementation of the Office for Proceedings
From this overview, it is clear that the Cartabia Reform, in providing for a more comprehensive and systematic regulation of the OP, actively involved not only the Ministry of Justice but also individual law courts and universities, in order to create a synergy between the various stakeholders throughout the country.