Improving efficiency in tribunals through a fixed-term workforce: The experience of Verona and Vicenza judicial districts

The judicial system is the result of a complex organizational network, where professionals with different expertise work together to provide efficient services to citizens. However, excessive amount of bureaucracy and high workloads can slow down the proper functioning of courts and reduce their efficiency by causing deterioration of service quality. Recent reforms of the Italian judicial system have led to the incorporation in the courts of the so-called UPP (“Ufficio Per il Processo”, which can be translated in English with “Trial Office”) staff, a new professional category, with the purpose of filling gaps in the workforce and promoting significant improvements in qualitative and organizational terms. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of UPP staff in terms of efficiency improvement. More precisely, it investigates what tasks are performed by UPP staff and how UPP reduces the case backlog in Italian tribunals to improve service quality to citizens. In terms of managerial implications, the findings of our research point to the need for an adequate communication activity towards both the current workforce in the tribunals and the newcoming people. Furthermore, the introduction of new resources into the organization, even if – or just because – its temporariness/short term duration call for a strong training action on both sides. While, as for the social implications, the UPP can be seen as one of the first attempts to introduce a change in a much old-fashioned branch in the public administration realm – the judicial system – and for this very reason it is presumably expected to have a positive impact, even if not immediately, in the medium run.