ITALIAN justice has a reputation for moving very slowly. A sense of timelessness pervades its courts. But at last one change is on the way. On August 10th the government announced a shake-up aimed at reducing the judiciary's inefficiency, which plagues the country's chronically weak economy. Paola Severino, the justice minister, had flagged the change to parliament earlier this year when she said that reform of Italy's "judicial geography" had been awaited since unification. The legislative decree just approved cuts 31 of the 166 courts that deliver justice across Italy, closes all their 220 local offshoots and shuts 667 offices of giudici di pace (lay magistrates). Ms Severino believes that the changes, expected to yield annual savings of around €80m ($99m), will also improve efficiency. Absorbing smaller courts into larger ones should bring economies of scale and Ms Severino noted that offshoots of courts are inefficient, lack specialist staff and demand excessive resources. Most cuts will fall in Piedmont in the north-west, where seven courts will close. Central Italy is also hit with the Abruzzo region losing four courts. Initially, Ms Severino had planned to axe 37 courts but six of her proposed victims, all in the south, were reprieved following concern that their closure would be seen as weakening the fight against the Mafia. "In a place like this, it's better to have a court than not," says Gianni Speranza, the mayor of Lamezia Terme, a Calabrian city that three Mafia wars have bloodied. No jobs will go in Ms Severino's scheme, which drew complaints from lawyers mainly because the changes will inconvenience them and their clients. Almost 400 judges and prosecutors and about 1,700 administrative staff will be transferred, bringing economic loss as well as loss of prestige for the towns where courts are closed. Reviewing the judicial system in January, Ms Severino mentioned backlogs of 5.5m civil and 3.4m criminal cases, with an average of over seven years needed for final judgments to be reached for the former and almost five years for the latter. The Bank of Italy reckons that inefficiency in civil justice costs Italy as much as 1% of annual GDP. Improvements are certainly needed; but changes far deeper than tinkering with Italy's judicial geography are required to tackle laws and legal procedures that favour the rich and powerful over ordinary folk.