Italian entrepreneurs face 3-year wait for civil court cases

(ANSA) Rome, August 28 - Italian entrepreneurs must wait on average more than three years for civil court cases to be heard, waiting more than double the average time required in other European countries, a study published Thursday shows.
    Only Greece has a slower judicial system with an average of 1300 days needed to resolve a business dispute in court compared to three years and one month in Italy and just 544 days on average in the EU, according to the study by the Confartigiano federation of artisans.
    The long delays cost Italian firms as much as 1,032 million euros a year, the study found.
    Bankruptcy proceedings in Italy take as long as seven years on average.
    Between 1980 and 2013 a backlog of as many as 5 million civil cases built up in the Italian judicial system with Italy placed at only 24th out of 27 for judicial efficiency.
    One slight sign of progress is that the average time required for appeal court cases fell from 1051 days in 2011 to 1025 in 2013.