Court of Florence Dataset

The study in the Florence first-instance court included a statistical analysis of cases through case documents during the years 2013–2016 as well as courtroom observations and interviews of judges during October–December 2018. A random sample of 402 cases was drawn out of 4,053 cases opened in the Florence first-instance court between 2013–2016, with 99% of them closing during 2016. The sample size amounts to approximately 10% of civil cases that terminated in the selected courts during that time; its reported sampling error is below 5%. A stratified sampling method was used to ensure that the sample accurately and proportionally represents the population of terminated civil cases of original jurisdiction.

The detailed features of the 402 sample cases were coded based on case documents (protocols) and data in electronic dockets. The goal of the project was to study the sample of court files by closely reviewing the case documents in order to collect case characteristics, outcomes (including settlements/mediation orders, contested judgments, etc.), and the specific JCR activities that were evident in the files.