Practice area

Public accounting liability

Defence in liability proceedings before the Italian Court of Auditors (Corte dei conti): a specialised jurisdiction with its own procedural code, where the decisive moment often comes at the very first pre-trial stage. The firm assists public officials, managers and accounting officers from the first investigative notice through to appeal.

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The proceedings

From the pre-trial notice to the appeal

  • Investigative phase: assistance from the moment the public prosecutor at the Court of Auditors serves the pre-trial notice (invito a dedurre) setting out the alleged loss. Written submissions and the personal hearing are often the best opportunity to close the matter before trial.
  • Liability trial: defence before the regional chamber under the Code of Accounting Justice (Legislative Decree 174/2016), including the fast-track procedure with reduced settlement where advantageous.
  • Appeals and account proceedings: appeals before the central appeal chambers and, for Sicily, the Sicilian appeal chamber; account proceedings involving accounting officers.
  • Jurisdictional issues: the boundary between the accounting, civil and administrative courts is decided by the Supreme Court of Cassation, where the firm acts directly.

Who we assist

The personal dimension of the proceedings

  • Public administrators: mayors, councillors and members of collegiate bodies facing claims for loss to the public purse arising from management decisions.
  • Public managers and employees: liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence, direct and indirect loss, damage to the administration’s image.
  • Accounting officers: accounting duties and the ensuing account proceedings.
  • Officers of publicly owned companies: the shifting boundaries of the accounting jurisdiction over state-owned entities.
Accounting liability proceedings touch the personal assets and the reputation of those who have served a public administration: the defence requires confidentiality, speed and specific knowledge of the accounting procedure.

Why the firm

A jurisdiction that demands specialists

Accounting proceedings are not administrative litigation under another name: they follow their own rules, deadlines and logic, and they intertwine with the substantive administrative law from which the alleged loss arises, from procurement to planning to public appointments. The firm combines litigation practice before the Court of Auditors with academic knowledge of public law and direct advocacy before the Supreme Court of Cassation, where jurisdictional questions are settled.

Timing

The right moment to defend is the first

Whoever receives a pre-trial notice has a deadline, set by the prosecutor and in any event not less than forty-five days (Art. 67 of the Code of Accounting Justice), to file submissions and request a hearing: this is the stage at which a well-built defence can avoid the trial altogether. Postponing legal advice means giving up the most effective tool.

The information on this page is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice on any specific case.
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