Cross-border legal support
Scarpellini Law Firm · Milan
Beyond the insurer’s first assessment.
Strategic counsel and litigation support for international law firms whose clients have been seriously injured, or have lost a family member, in Italy: road traffic collisions and medical liability, under Italian law and before Italian insurers and courts.
Your client remains your client. We work alongside your firm.
Before you refer a case
Or call +39 02 4003 1477
Beyond the first assessment
After a serious collision or a medical accident, it is normally the liable party’s insurer that makes the first assessment: its reconstruction of the facts, its medical examination, its figure. For a claimant who lives abroad, distance and language make that first figure harder to test.
Our work begins by reopening each element of it, with the specialists best placed to do so in the specific case.
Sheet 1 · The insurer’s assessment
The reconstruction and the offer made to your client, read line by line.
Sheet 2 · Liability
Police reports and the criminal file, read with an accident reconstruction specialist when liability is disputed.
Sheet 3 · Forensic medicine
An independent medico-legal expert, chosen for the case, assesses causation and permanent impairment under Italian criteria.
Sheet 4 · Heads of damage
What Italian law actually recognises
Biological damage, moral suffering, loss of the family relationship, future care and lost earnings: categories that do not map neatly onto common law heads of damage, and each of which must be proved.
Working with your firm
You share the key documents. We give a frank first view on jurisdiction, applicable law, liability and the time limits that apply.
We agree the model of collaboration, its scope and fees in writing, and become the point of contact with the insurer in Italy.
Liability, forensic medicine and heads of damage are documented to the standard Italian insurers and courts expect.
In negotiation or in court, with regular reports in English to your firm and, if you wish, to your client.
Collaboration models
Every engagement is defined at the outset, in writing, with your firm. The model can change as the case develops.
A focused opinion on liability, heads of damage, valuation and procedure, to support your advice or your negotiation.
We act in Italy alongside your firm: you keep the client relationship, we handle the Italian side of the claim.
We conduct the Italian claim in full, out of court and in court, reporting to your firm at every stage.
Forensic doctors, accident reconstruction specialists and clinical consultants, chosen for the specific case and briefed by us.
Guides for international counsel
Each answer leads to an in-depth guide, with references to the legislation and case law it rests on.
They are separate questions. For road traffic claims, the Rome II Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 generally applies the law of the country where the damage occurs (Article 4(1)), unless both parties are habitually resident in the same country (Article 4(2)). On jurisdiction, an injured party domiciled in another Member State may sue the liability insurer directly before the courts of their own domicile, as the Court of Justice held in Odenbreit (C-463/06); the rule now rests on Articles 11 and 13 of the Brussels I bis Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012.
For damage caused by the circulation of vehicles, Article 2947(2) of the Italian Civil Code sets a two-year limitation period; where the fact is also a criminal offence, the longer criminal period applies (Article 2947(3)). In medical liability, Law No 24/2017 distinguishes the liability of hospitals, subject to ten years, from that of practitioners in tort, subject to five. A written demand interrupts limitation (Article 2943).
Before accepting, check that the offer covers every head of damage Italian law recognises and rests on an independent medico-legal assessment, not only on the insurer’s own. In road traffic claims, offers follow the procedure of Article 148 of the Private Insurance Code (Legislative Decree No 209/2005); signing a release (quietanza) normally closes the claim.
Yes. A person harmed by an offence may join Italian criminal proceedings as a civil party (Articles 74 and following of the Code of Criminal Procedure) and claim compensation there. In road traffic cases the offences are usually road homicide or serious road injury (Articles 589-bis and 590-bis of the Criminal Code). Whether to join, or to pursue the claim only in the civil courts, is a strategic choice.
What your firm already has: the accident or police report reference, medical records, correspondence with the insurer and any offer received. Documents held in Italy, such as the criminal file, we request on the spot.
The practice
The firm, led by Avv. Roberta Scarpellini in Milan, handles only cases of serious personal injury and death, and takes on a limited number of them after careful analysis. Each case is followed personally from the first review to its conclusion, with a team assembled for that case.
Much of the work is done at the negotiating table: out-of-court negotiation with Italian insurers, prepared as thoroughly as litigation and aimed at the fullest compensation the evidence supports. Avv. Scarpellini is also President of NEVRA ETS, the Italian non-profit working for the legal recognition of neuropathic pain.
Working with her
for the compensation claim and civil-party proceedings
chosen case by case for the specific injury
when liability is disputed
when the damage calls for them
Every enquiry is read personally. Please do not attach confidential client documents to your first message: we will tell you what we need.
The firm in Italy
For clients based in Italy, the firm’s main website covers serious personal injury from road collisions and medical malpractice. studioscarpellini.com →