Speech by the Attorney General of the State Massimo Massella Ducci Teri ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF THE JUDICIAL YEAR 2017 (Rome, 26 January 2017) Mr President of the Republic, Authorities, Mr First President of the Court of Cassation, Mr Attorney General, Ladies and Gentlemen It is with great pleasure that this 'year, I take the floor at this solemn Inauguration Ceremony to greet the Institute that I have the honor of directing. 2016 and can only express deep appreciation and gratitude for the great commitment of the magistrates and administrative staff who work there. 1. These results also confirm the effectiveness of the reformist plan that has been launched during the current legislature, and which has certainly produced its fruits in terms of a considerable reduction in the times of civil trials and, consequently, of civil disputes. , as also highlighted by Minister Orlando in the report to the Chambers on the state of Justice in Italy. The very recent reform of the legitimacy judgment introduced by art. 1-bis of the law decree n. 168 of 2016, which was immediately followed by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Court of Cassation, the National Bar Council and the State Advocacy. Basically, the three main protagonists of the trial before the Court agreed on the modalities of management of hearings, interpreting in a shared way the new rules that the legislator has introduced to try to reduce the burdensome burden of the civil arrears before the Supreme Court.The commendable initiative of the First President could not have been more appropriate. And indeed the careful choice of intelligent and constitutionally oriented interpretative options, allows to outline a framework of certainties from which the effort that the Court is facing can only derive.It may seem like only a small step, but the new Protocol is added to that between the the Attorney General on the same subject of November 18, 2016, but above all to the previous Memorandum of Understanding on the drafting and of the grounds of appeal signed a year earlier between the Court and the National Bar Council, to which the Advocacy intends to give its support as soon as possible. the Court to be able to exercise its indispensable function of nomophilachy with ever greater effectiveness. Essential function to guarantee the predictability of decisions and, consequently, legal certainty. That certainty that must increasingly become the goal of our justice; and this both for a clear need for equal treatment among all citizens, and to contribute - also in this way - to the deflation of the dispute in progress. I believe that we should be grateful to the Court, for having courageously undertaken this path, which we hope it can also be followed on other subsequent occasions, in which the State Attorney's Office will never fail to make its contribution. On the other hand, the need for a constant and fruitful collaboration of the State Attorney's Office with the Supreme Court is made more and more necessary by the number of disputes that see the sponsored Administrations as parties: only in 2016 this number exceeded 9,000 deals. State litigation accounts for more than one third of all that under consideration by the Supreme Court in civil proceedings and, of this third, approximately 90% is made up of tax litigation. 3. Again with a view to accelerating processes, I also recall the work carried out by the State Attorney's Office in the initiation and implementation of the electronic civil process, providing its contribution in the tables set up at the Ministry of Justice for the elaboration of legislative proposals, regulatory and organizational, both on a general level and in relation to the peculiarities of the tax dispute. and statistical data: however, some numbers should be known, because they are always particularly significant. , recorded an increase of 7.5% on a national level, going beyond that 165,000 new business. They are added to the pending ones, for a total of about one million deals. newly established Revenue-Collection Agency, called to carry out the tasks carried out up to now by the suppressed Equitalia. year), but it will be added to the one mentioned above. The burden of the work for all the members of the Avvocatura dello Stato, who face it with commitment and dedication, is therefore evident. my personal recognition to the Government, for allowing us to hire 17 new state lawyers and 24 prosecutors and for having authorized the calling of a further competition for prosecutors of the S tato.4. I conclude by observing that the particular moment that the country is going through requires all the institutions and all of us to continue to put their utmost commitment into the exercise of the tasks entrusted to us. I am sure I can assure you, Mr. President of the Republic, that the State Attorney's Office and its members will continue to make every possible effort to live up to the relevant functions assigned, and not to disappoint the trust that is placed in us every day. Thank you, Mr. President of the Republic, thank you all for the attention you have paid to my words.