Factors Determining the Duration of Legal Disputes: An Empirical Analysis with Micro Data

Abstract

This paper attempts to shed light on some factors determining the duration of disputes. To this aim a unique database is used, accounting for eight hundred judgments rendered by the Italian Regional Administrative Courts from 2000 to 2007. Our findings confirm that normative complexity hampers a rapid solution and show that social capital may contribute to reduce the duration of disputes. The number of judges does not appear to be the main variable to explain the time needed to obtain a judgment of the first rank. Finally, the observed differences in duration may also be explained by referring to their topic.