Lawyers in Italy have gone on strike to protest a proposed overhaul of legal fees.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of legal cases are being pushed back on court dockets, delayed well into the fall and winter because lawyers in Italy are refusing to participate in hearings and Italy’s judicial system, glacial in good times, has ground virtually to a halt.

The lawyers are protesting a series of changes proposed by the new center-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi. The reforms would allow lawyers to advertise and to change their fee structures so they could claim a percentage of settlements in civil cases. The law also would eliminate a fee minimum.

The Prodi government maintains that the changes would make the legal profession more competitive and conform it to standards prevalent in the European Union. The changes are part of a broader plan aimed at jump-starting the sluggish Italian economy by making various sectors more competitive.

Lawyers complain that only colleagues in big firms would benefit, while those in individual practices, the majority, would be driven out of the market. They want to keep the standardized schedule of fees.

The same proposed law aimed at spurring competition would deregulate the taxi industry and allow nonprescription drugs to be sold in supermarkets. As a consequence, cabdrivers have been staging periodic wildcat strikes, paralyzing Rome and other Italian cities, and pharmacists in white smocks shut their stores and started handing out protest leaflets.

Separately, flight attendants with the national airline, Alitalia, and air traffic controllers are expected to go on strike next week.

Even without a strike, justice in Italy is slow: A civil trial takes eight years on average, a criminal case five. As of June 30, 2004, about 9 million cases awaited sentencing, and 100,000 others were before the Supreme Court, according to the most recent official statistics available.

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