ROME, (Reuters) - Falsifying a one euro ($1.33) bus ticket in Italy is a criminal offense eligible for a full trial and two appeals that would cost the state many thousands of euros.
The U.S Supreme Court reviews around 100 appeals per year. The number for Italy's top appeals court, serving a population a fifth the size? More than 80,000.
Italy has 40,000 lawyers specializing in supreme court cases. According to Valerio Spigarelli, head of Italy's top criminal lawyers body, the number in neighboring France, with a similar population, is 25. They are among 240,000 lawyers in Italy, compared to 54,000 in the country next door.
Statistics like this give a glimpse into a chaotic, byzantine legal system which not only reduces citizens to despair and has senior judges tearing out their hair, but acts as a serious disincentive to foreign companies planning to invest and a powerful brake on the euro zone's third economy.
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