Motor insurance

The friendly statement goes digital, filling it out incorrectly can lead to loss of cover

It will remain possible to report a claim even with a paper form. But companies prefer more certain evidence and the Supreme Court approves

by Maurizio Hazan

5 June 2025

MODULO CID CONSTATAZIONE AMICHEVOLE DI INCIDENTE COMPILATO

4' min read

Key points

How to use it
Risk of loss of cover

4' min read

The Cai form (Authorised Accident Declaration, also known as Cid or blue form) becomes digital. It is one of the biggest novelties of theIvass regulation no. 56 of 25 March 2025, a further step forward in the digitalisation of motor liability documents. It was inevitable that the Cai too would have a digital version, as was already the case for the insurance sticker and certificate.

With the Cai every driver involved in an accident (whether right or wrong) fulfils the obligation to report the accident, filling in the fields and giving the company a detailed description of the dynamics and consequences.

The rule remains valid according to which, when the accident involves two vehicles and the Cai is signed by both drivers, it is presumed that the dynamics and consequences are those indicated on the form, unless the companies can prove otherwise. In all other cases (including those occurring abroad or also involving vehicles with foreign number plates), the Cai is in any case a useful trail to collect all the evidence needed to determine liability and settlement.

Article 143 of the Insurance Code (Cap) also gives the Cai an important evidentiary value: if it is signed by both drivers involved, it is presumed, unless the insurance company proves otherwise, that the accident occurred as shown on the form (on the possibility of overcoming this presumption, especially if technical checks reveal incompatibilities, see, among others, ruling 2438/2024 of the Court of Cassation).

Precisely because it is important for evidentiary purposes, the paper Cai (once even compiled on copy paper) - easily altered - has often been the focus of fraudulent conduct. The digital medium should greatly reduce this risk, with an unalterable traceability of what is described.

However, the paper Cai is not abolished: Article 13 of Regulation 56 still gives the customer, at the conclusion or renewal of the policy or even during the course of the relationship, a choice between digital and paper.

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How it will be used

Article 14 aims at facilitating the use of the form, providing for the obligation of companies to make available to policyholders and insured parties computer applications, by means of software that can also be used on mobile devices, and accessible via the web, to fill in the form and transmit it telematically (subject to signing with security requirements not inferior to those of advanced electronic signatures). All this, assisted by adequate security systems for privacy and cyberisk, is to be set up - along with other operational processes - by March 2026.

Although not expressly provided for by the regulation, the possibility ofusing the Cai on smartphones or tablets could allow the immediate attachment ofdigital images useful to attest - better than simple testimonies - the dynamics of the accident: in a society increasingly inclined to the digital sharing of all kinds of images, the lack of real time photographic documentation of places and damages could, moreover, if not adequately justified, lead to doubts on the genuineness of other reconstructions (see Court of Cassation order 28924/2022).

For those who have doubts about the functionality of the digital Cai when smartphones or tablets are unusable (for example, if they have low batteries or there are difficulties connecting to the web), it must be said that even in these cases it is good to collect as many photos and notes as possible by other means. Content that can be uploaded to the digital form as soon as you are back to normal.

Risk of loss of cover

Having absorbed the costs of adapting to the new procedures, the digitisation of the Cai could lead, in the medium term, to more efficient, economic and timely claims management, also to the benefit of policyholders. To achieve this, it will be necessary to promote the new tool and, before that, to educate customers to use it correctly. Not everyone knows, in fact, that the failure to report a claim could jeopardisethe effectiveness of the insurance cover: according to Article 143 of the Cap, failure to report a claim - irrespective of whether one is right or wrong - entails the same sanction envisaged, for failure to report a claim, by Article 1915 of the Civil Code (total or partial loss of indemnity).

The faithful and correct cooperation of the insured in the investigation of the claim is certainly essential: the non-submission of the Cai form, depriving the company of the possibility of the insured's version of the facts, justifies the total or partial loss of the cover (depending on whether the omission was wilful or culpable). The company, while not being able to oppose the non-reporting to the injured third party (Art. 144 and 148, Cap), could, after having compensated the insured, retaliate against its own insured (in whole or in part).

An option that has so far been little exercised. But it is reasonable to think that a rightful incentive for the use of the new Cai also passes through the activation of processes aimed at enforcing the company's rights precisely in the event of non-compliance with the reporting obligation.