Extrajudicial assistance reserved for lawyers

It constitutes abusive exercise of the legal profession to provide out-of-court assistance and legal advice without being entitled to do so. This was affirmed by the Court of Cassation, with sentence 18734 of the Sixth Criminal Section filed yesterday. The conviction of the Court of Appeal against a defendant for violation of Article 348 of the Criminal Code was therefore confirmed: under the lens had ended up the activity carried out in support of a company in a continuous, systematic and professional manner, and connected to judicial activity.

The Court recalls that Article 2(2) of the professional legal order, Law No. 247 of 2012, establishes that the two activities that are the subject of the alleged unlawful exercise, contested by the Prosecutor's Office, are of competence of lawyers if exercised in a continuous, not episodic and organised manner.

"Therefore," the judgement observed, "in the present case, it is only the actual performance of an activity with such characteristics by the defendant that is relevant, the existence of a formal mandate for the judicial activity not being necessary. What is relevant is instead that the consulting activity is intended to affect a judicial dispute, present or future.

The jurisprudence of the Civil Cassation, recalls the judgment filed yesterday, with regard to the payment of fees, has moreover emphasised that out-of-court activity in connection with judicial activity may also be only preparatory activity or activity aimed at the conclusion of a settlement that puts an end to the dispute, even if the settlement of the dispute did not take place in the form of conciliation before the court, but through an out-of-court agreement.

And, in the case that came before the Supreme Court, the advice given was aimed at finding the best line of defence (opposition or settlement) to react to judicial acts already served.