Based on the new data available on human resources and technologies at the court level and on solved cases, the paper provides a more detailed assessment of the performance of civil courts than in the past across several dimensions (length of proceedings, court productivity and stability of judgments) and shows the role of supply and demand factors in explaining the heterogeneities observed.
The analysis confirms significant differences in the length of the proceedings (about 60 per cent higher in the South). This is due to lower productivity, in some cases, and, in others, fewer human resources with respect to work flows, suggesting the need to tailor policy interventions at local court level. No differences are observed between the macro-regions in the appeal and reform rates of judgments and there is no correlation between these variables and the length of the proceedings.
