(by Kristalia Rachele Papaevangeliu, lawyer and head of the AIDR digital justice observatory) The coronavirus has profoundly changed the approach of magistrates and lawyers to the telematic method and has allowed remote participation in hearings with effects also beneficial on the work of professionals, judges , of the parties. The spirit of adaptation of the Italians undeniably came out in this epochal pandemic that initially blocked the machine of justice, already burdened by an impasse on the historical delay of the reform of the process and the long-standing debate on the prescription.
Leave the reluctance on the adoption of so-called solutions. smart to allow the justice machine to function, in the session of 26 March 2020, as is known, the Superior Council of the Judiciary issued a resolution that seeks to clarify every aspect and dictate concrete guidelines to operators in the sector, rearranging the legislation issued by the Government in recent weeks, with particular regard to art. 83 of Legislative Decree no. 18 of 17.03.2020. The resolution also includes, in Annex 1, a "Protocol proposal for civil hearings via remote connection". According to what established, participation in the Virtual Room, an environment dedicated to each individual magistrate within the "Teams" program and identified by means of a unique, personal and identifying link for the individual magistrate, therefore the Virtual Room would identify the courtroom of a specific judge, who will interact with the "team", a set of subjects called to participate in a specific hearing, identified by the general role, time, date and virtual location.
From a more careful analysis, however, the problem of third parties for the criminal trial, as well as witnesses for the civil trial, arises, and it is evident that the discussion of the trial to date, almost oral, remotely is relegated in many passages to the written form, also finding harsh criticisms from the experts.
But in any case, this has not prevented, in recent years, from digitizing and computerising almost all civil and administrative and even tax proceedings through the electronic process, with the exception of the Justice of the Peace and the Supreme Court of Cassation. This technological delay in the unitary organization of justice has forced improvised solutions, with the risk of sacrificing the procedural rules and the privacy of the parties involved.
In essence, the pandemic event prompted and stimulated accelerating the telematic process already well under way in the civilian sector, thus allowing to remove any superstructure suitable only to weigh it down, those patinas with an ancient flavor that still persist and do nothing but weigh it down. All this, of course, always trying to make the founding rights of our legal system based on justice and respect for the law stand out, and in fact there must be a real organization on the digital theme and that the initial improvisation due to the pandemic moment should not create legal flaws.