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All 218 guides: Italian criminal law in English

Direct answer

This page is the index to everything published on the site: guides to Italian criminal law written in English for people who are already caught up in a procedure they did not choose. The material is grouped by subject — emergency and arrest, Italian criminal procedure, offences and defences, the European dimension of arrest warrants, extradition and Interpol alerts, and the practical questions about costs and about working with a defence lawyer. Each guide states the deadline that applies to the situation it describes, where a deadline exists at all.

If something is already under way, do not read in order. Open the group that matches your position instead: the pages on arrest and emergency set out the steps that have to be taken while they can still be taken, and the procedural pages explain what the papers already served on you are actually asking of you.

Avv. Massimo Romano — Ordine degli Avvocati di Napoli n. 14553, patrocinante in Cassazione dal 23/10/2015 — Roma, Via Avicenna 97, 00146 · Milano, Via Giuseppe Pecchio 3, 20129 · Napoli, Corso Umberto I 237, 80138 — +39 335 669 3954

In brief

The index gathers every guide on the site into subject groups, so a reader can move from a general question to the page dealing with their own situation without working through unrelated material.
The emergency and arrest group covers what happens in the hours after a person is detained in Italy or abroad, including what relatives can usefully do from home while the detained person is still being questioned.
The procedural group explains the stages of an Italian criminal case, from the opening of an investigation to the review of a judgment, and what each document served on a defendant requires of them.
The group on offences and defences takes the charges that recur most often and sets out what the prosecution has to establish and where the defence usually concentrates its work.
The European group deals with arrest warrants, extradition requests and Interpol alerts, where the matter is decided partly in the country holding the person and partly in the country asking for them.
The practical group answers the questions people are reluctant to ask: how fees are agreed, what legal aid covers, how instructions are given from abroad, and what a defence lawyer is not able to do.
Where a guide states a deadline, that deadline is the reason to read the page now rather than later, because most remedies in Italian procedure are lost through the passage of time rather than refused on their merits.

Everything published on this site, grouped by subject. Each guide states the deadline that applies, where there is one.

218 guides · updated 2026-08-07

About the lawyer

Most people reach this office in the middle of something they did not plan for: an arrest in another country, a search at dawn, a summons that arrived while they were away from Italy. The first conversation is with Avv. Massimo Romano himself, not with a secretary who takes a message. He is a criminal defence lawyer admitted to plead before the Italian Court of Cassation, and his work has long centred on Italian criminal procedure, European arrest warrants and extradition. On that first call he asks what documents exist, who has seen the person detained, and which authority is involved. No assessment is given before the papers have been read. Afterwards he sets out, in writing, what can be done from Italy and what has to be done where the person is held. Relatives who do not speak Italian are not left translating for themselves: the office speaks with the family in English, by telephone and in writing.

Call the office, or write on WhatsApp if that is easier from abroad. Have to hand the full name of the person involved, the city and country where they are held, and any document already received, even as a photograph.

Avv. Massimo Romano — criminal defence lawyer, admitted to the Italian Court of Cassation
Iscritto all'Ordine degli Avvocati di Napoli n. 14553 | Patrocinante in Cassazione dal 23/10/2015
Roma, Via Avicenna 97, 00146 · Milano, Via Giuseppe Pecchio 3, 20129 · Napoli, Corso Umberto I 237, 80138
+39 335 669 3954 · WhatsApp

Emergency and arrest

12 guides

The guides are arranged in groups, and the group a page belongs to tells you how urgently it needs reading. The table below sets each group beside the question it answers and the reader it was written for.

Group	What it answers	Who it is written for
Emergency and arrest	What happens immediately after a detention, and what can still be done	Relatives acting from home and people detained in Italy or abroad
Italian criminal procedure	How a case moves from investigation to judgment and review	People holding a notice, a summons or a judgment they cannot interpret
Offences and defences	What the prosecution must establish for a given charge	Anyone who has been told which offence is being investigated
Europe: warrants, extradition, alerts	How surrender requests and international alerts are handled	People stopped at a border or living under a request from another state
Costs, lawyers and practical matters	How instructions, fees and legal aid actually work	Readers deciding whether and how to instruct a defence lawyer

Italian criminal procedure

18 guides

Readers arrive here from very different positions, and the useful starting point depends on which of them applies. This table matches a position to the group worth opening before any other.

Your position	Where to start	Why there
A relative has been detained in another country	Emergency and arrest	The steps that matter are taken before anyone sees a judge
A notice or summons has arrived from an Italian authority	Italian criminal procedure	The document names a stage, and the stage sets the deadline
You have discovered proceedings you knew nothing about	Italian criminal procedure	Access to the file comes before any decision on strategy
A judgment has been given against you	Italian criminal procedure	Review runs from the filing of the written reasons, not the hearing
You were stopped at a border on an alert	Europe: warrants, extradition, alerts	The case turns on the measure issued elsewhere, not on the stop

Offences and defences

61 guides

Timing changes which page is worth reading. The table below groups the material by the moment at which it is still capable of changing something.

When	What to read	What is at stake
In the hours after a detention	The arrest pages for the country concerned	Access to a lawyer, notification, and the account that goes in the file
Before questioning	The pages on police powers and on what you need not say	Statements made without advice are difficult to undo afterwards
While an investigation is open	The pages on defence investigations and on early resolution	Evidence that is still retrievable, and routes that close on notice
After a judgment	The pages on review and on enforcement	Deadlines counted from the filing of the written reasons
Before travelling to Italy	The pages on alerts and on unserved sentences	Whether a border crossing will produce an arrest

Europe: EAW, extradition, Red Notice

103 guides

Costs, lawyers and practical matters

24 guides