Judicial performance and its determinants: a cross-country perspective,
Main Paper, Economic Policy Paper no. 5

What makes civil justice effective?, Giustizia civile: come promuoverne l’efficienza?
Short Paper, Economics Department Policy Note no. 18

 •   In the OECD area the average length of civil proceedings is around 240 days in first instance, but in some countries a trial may require almost twice as many days to be resolved. Final disposition of cases may involve a long process of appeal before the higher courts, which in some cases can average more than 7 years. ‌

•    Appeal rates are lower in countries where filing an appeal is subject to obtaining permission (leave). However, restrictions to appeal imposed by law do not explain all of the cross-country differences in appeal rates, suggesting that there is potential scope for increasing predictability of court decisions (leading to lower appeal rates) without tightening restrictions.

•    On the supply side of the market for civil justice services, differences in trial length appear to be more related to the structure of justice spending, and the structure and governance of courts than to the sheer amount of resources devoted to justice.

-    Larger shares of the justice budget devoted to computerisation, the active management of the progress of cases by courts and the systematic production of statistics at the court level are associated with shorter trial length.  
-    Investments in court computerisation also correlate with productivity of judges. The impact is larger when the degree of computer literacy in the country is higher, suggesting that such investments should be accompanied by policies aimed at ensuring that users have adequate technical endowments and skills.
-    The majority of courts in OECD countries have electronic forms, websites and electronic registers; many countries either have not yet implemented online facilities and the possibility for lawyers to follow up cases online, or have done so only in a minority of courts.
-    Trial length is shorter in countries with specialised commercial courts.
-    Systems of court governance in which the chief judge has broader managerial responsibilities (e.g. covering supervision of non-judge staff and administration of the budget), display lower average trial length than systems where such responsibilities are differently allocated.