BARI – The Puglia Region inaugurates the network of Proximity Offices, an innovative justice model designed to improve the accessibility and usability of legal services – especially for the most vulnerable segments of the population – made more difficult following the closure of some detached sections of the Courts.
The project, presented on Monday morning at the headquarters of the Puglia Region in via Gentile in Bari, aims to digitize all the voluntary jurisdiction files at the Apulian Courts, allowing some activities related to voluntary jurisdiction to be carried out directly at the Municipalities of belonging.
In order to allow the Municipalities to carry out the service, the Region has coordinated the relationships with the Ministry of Justice and with all the bodies involved, has provided the Municipalities with the necessary furniture and IT equipment, has taken care of the specialist training of the personnel involved (to date, training sessions have already been provided to 57 resources, for a total of over 900 hours used), has entrusted the digitization activity of over 27,000 Voluntary Jurisdiction files at the Apulian Courts, to make information more accessibleactions and simplify procedures.
To date the Commons, individually or in association, who have joined the initiative by responding to two notices of expression of interest published by the regional Region, I am 44 (of which 22 are Leaders). In the past few weeks, the Proximity Offices have already been opened in Municipalities of Barletta, Minervino Murge and Noicattaro and I’m in phase opening soon also the Municipalities of Ugento, Andria, Galatina, Molfetta and Guagnano; Subsequently, as the municipal staff completes the planned training course, all the other 14 proximity offices will be activated by 2024, involving a total of 44 municipalities and a catchment area of over 700,000 residents in Puglia. The aforementioned opportunity for digitalization and delocalization of the justice system, in the logic of proximity to the needs of citizens and professionals, is made possible thanks to specific memoranda of understanding and practical protocols signed between the Puglia Region, the Municipalities participating in the initiative and the Courts of Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, Foggia, Taranto and Trani.
“The project is synergic and complementary to the many initiatives that the Puglia Region is promoting within its Agenda PugliaDigitale#2030 – declared the Councillor for Economic Development, Alessandro Delli Nuts – where digital and the possibility of providing services remotely is interpreted in the perspective of inclusion and shortening physical distances and where technology simplifies citizens’ lives. GThanks to the Proximity Offices, citizens, professionals and operators will be able to access, without necessarily having to reach the Courts, numerous services, including guidance on legal protection institutions (such as support administration, guardianship and appointment of curators), distribution and compilation of forms for judicial procedures, support in drafting legal documents (appeals, requests, etc.), updates on the status of Voluntary Jurisdiction procedures and electronic filing of documents. I would like to thank all the bodies involved, the Ministry of Justice, the Apulian Courts and the Municipalities that have made themselves available to meet and offer useful services to their citizens”.
“The proximity offices – he declared Gabriella De StradisDirector General for the coordination of cohesion policies – represent a virtuous example of a useful tool to shorten the distances between citizens and the justice system. In the near future, the offer of the offices may be further enriched within the new complex project of the Ministry of Justice, ‘A more inclusive justice’, which aims, within the PN Inclusione 21-27, to integrate the tools currently available with new initiatives aimed at subjects subjected to penal measures”.
The project is promoted by the Ministry of Justice with funds from the Complementary Operational Programme to the National Operational Programme “Governance and institutional capacity” 2014-2020 (axis 1, Thematic Objective 1.4).
