Next Generation UPP

With the approval of the PNRR, Italy has committed to the European Commission to reach specific targets, with particular reference to the reduction of the timeframe of the proceedings and the elimination of the over-three-year civil and criminal backlog, according to the reasonable duration of the process.

In order to contribute to the maintenance of the commitments made and improve the performance of justice in north-western Italy, the project intends to adopt a multidisciplinary approach at each stage by exploiting legal, business and IT skills.

What we want to achieve is a structural reform that, by means of artificial intelligence tools, economic-managerial control, change management and digitization, guarantees an organization, currently "loosely coupled", to function efficiently, rational and coordinated by correcting cognitive biases and avoiding any waste of time and resources.

Next Generation UPP, in line with what is highlighted by the European Commission for the efficiency of justice of the Council of Europe (Commissione europea per l’efficienza della giustizia del Consiglio d’Europa - CEPEJ) 

in the document European Ethical Charter on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Systems and their environment, wants to enhance the digitalisation process of judicial activities as a basis for the application of Legal Analytics (LA) tools and create a technical environment in which to bring together different disciplines, including data science, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) ).

The project coordinators agree in recognizing role of AI as merely supportive for the human operator and not as a replacement. In fact, AI has the purpose of expanding the tools of knowledge and analysis, in reality and in law, available to the constitutionally autonomous magistrate, so as to make them authentically aware of their choices.

A leading role has been recognised for the Process Offices (UPP) and the staff employed, present and future. Structures whose potential is not yet really exploited and which the project has identified not only as recipients of interventions, but as essential parts in the improvement process.

Over the next five years, the UPP structure will undergo a temporary but substantial change due to the introduction, financed by the PNRR, of 16,500 temporary workers contracted until the end of 2026 (thus the legislative decree 80/2021). The challenge is therefore twofold: make the most of this unrepeatable opportunity, managing the temporary staff in the best possible way, and correctly setting up the UPPs so that they continue to perform their functions efficiently once the special workforce is no longer available.

The first line of action therefore concerns the "Definition of operational modules for the establishment and implementation of the UPP".

After an initial reconnaissance phase relating to the functioning of the judicial offices in which the UPPs are active and those that are still without them, the project provides for the "Definition of the catalogue of activities and procedures for the activation and strengthening of the legal process offices”.

In practice, this action will see the application of some of the following operative modules:

Support for writing the motivation of civil and criminal measures

• Creation of the conceptual model file of the sentence,
• Document builder systems
• Semi-automatic anonymisation of judicial decisions
• Semantic analysis tools for sentences
• Study and prototyping of tools for automatic extraction of information from the documents presented by the parties
• Automatic classification of trial file documents and their correlation
• Use of AI techniques for background management
• Enhancement of the existing digital system
• Case law database

The second line of action is aimed at the "Identification of models for the management of incoming flows and arrears at the Judicial Offices". The project makes use of the legal, IT and business skills of the recruited resources by implementing the following activities:

• Control of economic and managerial domain on the reconnaissance activities
• Identification of the offices for the testbed and support for the formalization of processes
• Modeling of flows for the testbed
• Assessment of experimental activities

The third line of action involves the "Activation and testing of models and plans relating to previous actions" through the establishment of a Task Force to deal with the activation and testing of models and plans developed during the project and evaluate their capacity building and extension also at national level.

The fourth line of action acts on the role of university institutions and their relationship with the world of justice. The aim is to define new collaborative schemes based on sharing objectives, collaboration, experimentation skills, identification of potential, development of organizational skills, in order to improve legal/judicial services for citizens and territories.

Next generation UPP identifies activities to be carried out in the context of the single-cycle and three-year master's degree course in legal disciplines and activities to be carried out in the context of post-graduate study and research.

These include

• The modification of programmes and methods of examination of the fundamental courses for the training of future professionals in the field of Law, with a greater emphasis on acquiring the skills necessary for the new judicial market, primarily the ability to draw up conceptual maps and approach practical cases.
• Writing laboratories, legal IT laboratories, legal clinics for deserving students of the single-cycle master's degree course
• Training of graduate fellows and / or fellows to be sent to judicial offices of the North-West area as part of Next Generation UPP
• Training of the employees of the Legal Process Office recruited through Special Calls as laid down in the recruitment plan funded by the PNRR
• Interdisciplinary higher education courses or professional training diplomas

General goals of the action plan

• With respect to the situation of the Legal Process Offices
  Safeguard and improve the UPP system, beyond 2026, when the extraordinary workforce provided for by Legislative Decree 80/2021 and funded by the PNRR will end.
• With respect to the current status of services in civil matters of the judicial offices of the Macro Area of reference
  Achieve - during its implementation period - a more efficient management of incoming litigation cases and a reduction in civil case arrears by the judicial offices involved
• With respect to the education context
  To train graduates in legal subjects with the skills necessary for the UPP, while minimizing the need for on-site training by judicial offices and to launch, with the judicial offices (and the Bar), new forms of post-graduate collaborative projects suitable for respond to the needs of the legal system.

Expected results of Next Generation UPP:

1. The judicial offices of the Macro Area of reference will have acquired a more efficient method of managing judicial affairs, using the UPP to help reduce the backlog and average duration of proceedings.
2. All graduates in legal disciplines of the Macro Area will have acquired transversal, IT and management skills for inclusion in the UPP. The administrative staff of the UPPs will have continuous training.