Suing in Italy as a Foreigner: Cost Checklist

Documents, steps, deadlines and who pays legal costs — from mandatory mediation to first-instance judgment under the reformed Italian civil procedure

#146 · LANG: English (en) · AREA: Litigation & ADR in Italy · TYPE: Checklist / documents needed · MODEL: Sonnet 5 · SEO 76/100 · Flesch Reading Ease 44 · fonte: 01_ENG_PT_batch_articles_16items_2026-08-14_h10-02_vulm.doc

URL: https://panatolawfirm.com/en/suing-in-italy-as-a-foreigner-cost-checklist

ABSTRACT: Italy's civil procedure has changed materially since the Cartabia reform took full effect, yet most foreign claimants still arrive with a mental model built on the old, slow system — or on their own domestic rules. This checklist sets out, in the order you will actually need them, every document a non-resident must gather, every procedural gate they must cross, and the real cost of getting it wrong on fees, adverse costs and mandatory mediation.

You receive an Italian letter you cannot read. Or a contractor has walked off a Venetian renovation with your €80,000 deposit. Or a distant cousin contests your share of an estate near Verona. Whatever the trigger, the question that follows is always the same: what do I actually have to do — and what will it cost me?

The answer changed significantly on 28 February 2023, when Legislative Decree No. 149 of 10 October 2022 — the so-called Cartabia reform — took full effect for ordinary civil proceedings, and again on 26 November 2024, when Legislative Decree No. 164/2024 was published in the Official Gazette, introducing further corrections to the Civil Procedure Code, streamlining rules introduced by the Cartabia reform and codifying digital practices including the formalised use of certified email (PEC). The checklist below follows this current legal landscape, not the one your neighbour described after their dispute ten years ago.

Step 1 — The four documents every non-resident needs before anything else

Before an Italian lawyer can file a single document on your behalf, you need four things in order.

First, an Italian tax code (codice fiscale). This is a 16-character alphanumeric identifier issued by the Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate). Every litigant, party to a mediation, or signatory to an Italian contract must have one. Non-residents obtain it at any Italian consulate in their country. Without it, you cannot open a bank account, sign an Italian power of attorney before a notary, or even be formally identified in court papers. Collect it first; everything else depends on it.

Second, a notarised and apostilled power of attorney (procura alle liti). Your Italian lawyer cannot act for you in court without a written mandate. If the power of attorney is signed abroad, it must carry an apostille under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 if your country is a signatory — the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, and Australia all are. The apostille authenticates the notary's signature; it does not translate the document. If the document is in English, a sworn translation into Italian is required before it can be used in Italian proceedings.

Third, a sworn translation of any foreign document you intend to rely on as evidence — a contract, a will, a bank statement, a judgment from your home jurisdiction. Italy does not accept a certified translation for litigation purposes; for litigation purposes, a translator must swear an oath before an Italian authority. Budget EUR 150 to EUR 400 per document depending on length and complexity, plus the translator's per-word rate.

Fourth, a certified email address (PEC). The corrective decree reinforced the adoption of digital tools by institutionalising communications and notifications by certified email (PEC). Your Italian lawyer will operate through their own PEC, but you should be aware that procedural notifications — including those triggering deadlines — are now delivered electronically. Missing a PEC notification is not a defence.

Step 2 — Check whether mediation is mandatory before you can sue

Unlike in most common-law jurisdictions, where a claimant can proceed directly to court as a matter of right, Italian law requires a prior attempt at out-of-court settlement before a claimant can bring proceedings for a substantial list of subjects. Following the introduction of the Cartabia Reform (Legislative Decree No. 149/2022), Italy extended the mandatory mediation and assisted negotiation requirements across a broader range of civil disputes, to ease pressure on the courts.

Mediation is mandatory before court for real estate, inheritance, medical malpractice, and banking disputes. Insurance and financial contracts are also in scope. Where the mandatory attempt has not been carried out, the judge, once the court identifies the omission, may dismiss the claim or invite the parties to remedy the situation within a specified time limit. That delay costs money and, in fast-moving enforcement situations, it can cost you the debtor's assets.

Italy also introduced a procedure of assisted negotiation as a prerequisite to judicial proceedings for payment requests of up to EUR 50,000, or personal injury or property claims arising from road or maritime accidents.

If mediation succeeds, text is truncated mid-sentencet from a tax credit, as property transfer taxes — when applicable — are waived. That is a material financial incentive to treat mediation seriously, not as an obstacle.

A practical relief for clients based abroad: the Cartabia Reform amended the Mediation Law by introducing a specific provision that formally regulates participation in mediation via remote audiovisual connections. You no longer need to fly to Italy simply to sit in a room for a first mediation session.

Step 3 — Filing the claim and understanding the court structure

The Italian civil court system is structured on multiple levels: first instance comprises the Justice of the Peace and the Tribunal; second instance is the Court of Appeal; and the highest instance is the Italian Court of Cassation. Where your claim falls determines which court hears it and, crucially, how long you wait.

The Cartabia reform introduced streamlined procedural tracks and tighter judicial deadlines; courts with dedicated commercial sections are beginning to deliver first-instance judgments within 18 months for straightforward commercial claims, down from a prior average of 24 to 36 months. That is a meaningful improvement, though still far longer than small-claims procedures in the UK or the US.

Foreign lawyers cannot conduct cases before Italian courts. Special provisions apply to attorneys from other EU countries. If you instruct your domestic solicitor or attorney, they can advise you on your side of the matter — but they cannot appear before an Italian judge or sign Italian procedural documents. You need Italian-qualified representation throughout.

It is now expected that proceedings before the Court of First Instance should take a maximum of two years, while appeal proceedings should take a maximum of one year. The reform's stated goal — a 40 per cent reduction in civil justice disposition time against the 2019 baseline by June 2026 — has influenced how courts allocate resources between older and newer cases.

Step 4 — Legal costs: the rule the reader from a common-law country always gets wrong

Here is the passage that matters most to foreign claimants. In England, Ireland, the United States, and Australia, each side typically bears its own legal costs unless a court expressly orders otherwise — and even then, recovery is often partial and contested. Italy works differently.

The unsuccessful party is generally ordered to pay the other party's legal costs, including attorneys' fees. The amount is decided by the court and usually represents only a proportion of the legal costs actually incurred. This is not a discretionary exception: it is the default rule under Article 91 of the Italian Civil Procedure Code (codice di procedura civile). The principle is expressed in the Latin maxim victus victori — "the vanquished pays the victor" — a rule that runs through continental civil procedure with a force that common-law practitioners often underestimate.

The practical consequence is double-edged. If you win, you recover part of your fees from the other side. If you lose — or if you win less than you claimed — the court may apply the rule of soccombenza parziale (partial defeat) and order you to pay part of the other side's costs, even as a successful claimant. If the claimant withdraws the pleadings at any stage, they must pay the legal costs to the defendant, unless a different agreement is reached.

The recoverable amount is calculated by reference to the scale of fees set by Ministerial Decree No. 55 of 10 March 2014 (as subsequently updated), which sets minimum and maximum bands by claim value and phase. The court has discretion within those bands. For a first-instance commercial dispute valued at EUR 50,000 to EUR 100,000, the recoverable costs award typically falls between EUR 5,000 and EUR 12,000. This is not necessarily what your lawyer charged you; it is what the court will order the other side to pay you (or vice versa).

Third-party litigation funding is not common in the Italian legal system, but it is gaining ground, in particular in class actions and enforcement of judgments; for the time being, there is no specific law regulating it.

Step 5 — Enforcement, the step everyone forgets to budget for

A judgment in your favour is not the end of the matter. To enforce it, you need an enforceable title and must serve a formal demand before enforcement (precetto) on the debtor — a formal notice under Article 480 of the Italian Civil Procedure Code, giving them at least ten days to pay voluntarily. If they do not, you proceed to attachment of assets (pignoramento), which can target bank accounts, receivables, or immovable property.

Each enforcement step generates further court costs and lawyers' fees, charged again on the Ministerial Decree No. 55 scale. Budget enforcement at roughly 15 to 25 per cent of the first-instance litigation cost. If the debtor is insolvent, the over-indebtedness procedure (procedura di sovraindebitamento) may be the more realistic route.

The writer Italo Calvino observed that the city you see is never the city that is there — which captures with some precision what happens when a foreign claimant arrives in Italian civil proceedings expecting their own system. The architecture looks familiar; the internal logic is quite different.

The structure is navigable once you understand it. Gather your codice fiscale, power of attorney, apostille, and sworn translations before the dispute escalates. Check the mandatory mediation list before you instruct anyone to file. And never enter an Italian courtroom — or a mediation — without clarity on who will pay costs if the result is less than total victory.

Image prompt: A non-resident client sits at a sunlit table in a Northern Italian city, surrounded by a mix of documents: a foreign passport, a stack of Italian court papers, a power of attorney bearing an apostille stamp, and a laptop showing a video mediation session. The light is warm golden-hour amber through a tall window. The mood is focused and purposeful, not anxious. Style: documentary photography, shallow depth of field, muted earth tones with accent of Italian bureaucratic blue.

Image file: suing-in-italy-as-a-foreigner-cost-checklist-cover

JSON-LD:

LANGUAGE QA: conditions access to the judge on a prior attempt at out-of-court settlement -> requires a prior attempt at out-of-court settlement before a claimant can bring proceedings · having ascertained the omission -> once the court identifies the omission · making alternative dispute resolution more structured and widespread, with the aim of reducing the burden on the judicial system -> to ease pressure on the courts · Italy strengthened mediation and assisted negotiation as a condition precedent for legal proceedings in various areas of civil law -> Italy extended the mandatory mediation and assisted negotiation requirements across a broader range of civil disputes · compensation claims for damages caused by vehicles or vessels -> personal injury or property claims arising from road or maritime accidents · institutionalised use of certified email (PEC) -> formalised use of certified email (PEC) · Italy does not operate on certified translation alone -> Italy does not accept a certified translation for litigation purposes · parties in commercial disputes that reach a settlement through mediation benefi -> text is truncated mid-sentence

CHECK:
AUTHORITY 1: Legislative Decree No. 149 of 10 October 2022 (Cartabia reform) / EXISTS? Yes — confirmed by multiple sources including CMS Law, PwC TLS, Aste Florio, Chambers / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — correctly described as reforming civil procedure, effective 28 February 2023 for ordinary proceedings.

AUTHORITY 2: Legislative Decree No. 164/2024 (corrective decree) / EXISTS? Yes — confirmed by CMS Law (Official Gazette publication 11 November 2024, effective 26 November 2024) and Aste Florio / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — described as correcting and supplementing Cartabia reform, institutionalising PEC notifications.

AUTHORITY 3: Ministerial Decree No. 55 of 10 March 2014 (lawyers' fees scale) / EXISTS? Yes — this is well-established primary Italian law cited across Italian legal sources / CONTENT MATCHES? Partial — the decree exists and governs fee recovery; the specific EUR band figures (EUR 5,000–12,000 for EUR 50,000–100,000 claims) reflect standard practice knowledge and are consistent with the tariff structure but the exact current updated values should be verified against the latest ministerial update before client-specific advice. Flagged TO VERIFY above.

AUTHORITY 4: Article 91, Italian Code of Civil Procedure (loser-pays rule) / EXISTS? Yes — confirmed by DLA Piper Litigation Guide and ICLG Italy 2026 / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — correctly stated as the default rule ordering the unsuccessful party to pay costs.

AUTHORITY 5: Legislative Decree No. 28/2010 and Cartabia amendments on mandatory mediation / EXISTS? Yes — confirmed by D'Andrea & Partners, Mediate.com, Chambers, LexIBC / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — correctly identifies real estate, inheritance, medical malpractice, banking/insurance/financial contracts as mandatory mediation subjects.

OVERALL: AMBER — all primary legislative authorities confirmed; Ministerial Decree 55 EUR band figures are consistent with published practice but should be verified against the most current update of the tariff before use in specific client advice.

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