Pushing at the Edge of Maximum Manageable Complexity: The Case of 'Trial Online' in Italy

Since 2000, Trial OnLine (TOL) is a typical nationwide e-filing project aiming at managing, in a comprehensive way, documents and communications of all civil trial proceedings through digital solutions. Even though it was expected that in 2005 more than 50 courts would have taken advantage of TOL's applications, at the end of 2006 only one application (payment order) was in use and only in one court: the Tribunal of Milan. Now the situation is changed and some other online civil proceedings are progressively spreading. In this chapter, the reasons behind this deep change are investigated. The understanding of the great complexity of legal, technological, organizational, and institutional domains involved in TOL project development has been the goal of our analysis. The simplification of the technological architecture, the modification of the legal framework for promoting legally viable ICT-based practices, and, above all, a close collaboration between courts and bar associations in facilitating user access to e-justice are considered the main factors for the revitalization of TOL when project failure was around the corner.