Fights and assault in Italy: how the charges are graded
Italian law has no single offence of assault. It has a graded scale, and the step that decides everything is whether an injury resulted. Striking somebody without causing injury is the lighter offence of percosse and is prosecuted only on complaint; as soon as a medical certificate records any injury at all, the conduct becomes lesioni personali, with a markedly heavier bracket and a different route to resolution.
That matters to anybody caught up in a fight, a family argument or a street dispute, on either side of it. The medical certificate, its date and the recovery period written on it drive the charge, so the papers created in the hours afterwards weigh more than anything said later.
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 scale runs from striking without injury, through injury caused, to serious and very serious injury, with separate provisions for affray, for threats and for coercion by violence.
- The medical certificate is the document the whole case is built on, because the recovery period recorded on it fixes the bracket and the way the proceeding can end.
- Most of these offences are prosecuted only where the injured person files a complaint, and a complaint lodged after the deadline cannot support a prosecution at all.
- The deadline has to be checked against the date the injured person learned of the facts rather than assumed, and that check is frequently the opening of a defence.
- Where prosecution depends on a complaint, withdrawal of the complaint ends the matter entirely, which is why compensation and an agreement close a large share of these files.
- Self-defence requires a present danger of unjust harm, a necessary response and proportion between them, and where all are present no offence has been committed.
- Where the danger genuinely existed but the limits were exceeded through misjudgement, the conduct is treated as negligent rather than intentional, an intermediate step that defendants and prosecutors alike overlook.
- The evidence for self-defence vanishes quickly: photographs of the defender's own injuries, camera recordings and the accounts of bystanders have to be secured at once.
- Affray reaches everybody who joined in a fight between several people, so taking part at all carries exposure even for somebody who injured nobody.
The scale
| Offence | Penalty | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Percosse — striking without injury | Up to six months or a fine, on complaint | Art. 581 Criminal Code |
| Lesioni personali — injury caused | Six months to three years | Art. 582 |
| Serious and very serious injury | Separate, heavier brackets | Art. 583 |
| Affray — a fight between several people | A fine; far heavier if injury or death results | Art. 588 |
| Threats | A fine, or up to one year if serious | Art. 612 |
| Coercion | Violence or threats used to force conduct | Art. 610 |
The medical certificate is therefore the document the whole case is built on. The number of days of recovery recorded on it determines the bracket, whether prosecution requires a complaint, and how the case can end.
The complaint, and withdrawing it
Most of these offences are prosecuted only if the injured person files a complaint, within three months of learning of the facts. That has two consequences worth knowing.
First, the deadline. A complaint filed late cannot support a prosecution, and the date has to be checked rather than assumed. Second, withdrawal: where the offence is prosecuted on complaint, withdrawal extinguishes it entirely. Compensation and a withdrawn complaint end many of these cases outright, and that route closes once the matter moves further along.
Self-defence, and what happens when it goes too far
Italian law recognises self-defence where there is a present danger of an unjust harm, the defence is necessary and the response is proportionate. Where all three are present, no offence is committed.
Where the situation genuinely existed but the limits were exceeded through misjudgement, the law does not treat it as intentional violence: the offence becomes a negligent one, with far lighter penalties. That intermediate step is missed by defendants and prosecutors alike, and moving a case into it changes the outcome dramatically.
The evidence for it disappears quickly. Photographs of injuries suffered by the person who defended themselves — routinely neglected, because they seem beside the point — CCTV footage, and the accounts of anyone present, are what the argument rests on.
The typical case
It is almost always the same one: late at night, alcohol on both sides, an argument outside a bar, both parties file complaints, and both are simultaneously suspect and injured party. In that situation the sequence of events is the whole case, and it is decided by what the officers wrote down in the first hour.
- Get a medical certificate for your own injuries, even minor ones, the same night.
- Identify witnesses and note where cameras are: footage is overwritten within days.
- Do not discuss the incident on social media or in messages to the other party.
- Do not sign an Italian record you have not had translated.
Readers confuse the lighter offence with the heavier one because the physical conduct can be identical, and the table sets out what actually separates them.
| Element | Striking without injury | Injury caused |
|---|---|---|
| What the conduct produced | Pain or contact, with nothing certified | An injury recorded by a doctor |
| How the proceeding starts | Only where the injured person complains | Depends on the gravity recorded |
| Weight of the bracket | The lighter end of the scale | Markedly heavier, and it rises with the recovery period |
| Effect of a withdrawn complaint | Ends the matter where prosecution depended on it | Limited where the gravity removes the complaint requirement |
| The decisive document | Whatever the complainant describes | The medical certificate and its recovery period |
What makes it worse
Certain factors move a case out of the ordinary range: the use of a weapon or any object capable of causing injury, several people acting together, and offences committed against public officials — where a separate charge of resisting a public official may be added, with its own bracket and its own aggravating circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
Is punching someone a crime in Italy?
Yes. Without injury it is percosse, up to six months or a fine and only on complaint. With any recorded injury it becomes lesioni personali, starting at six months.
If the other person withdraws the complaint, does the case end?
Where the offence is prosecuted on complaint, withdrawal extinguishes it. That is why compensation combined with withdrawal resolves many of these cases.
How long do they have to file a complaint?
Three months from learning of the facts. A complaint filed after that cannot support a prosecution, so the date should always be checked.
What if I was defending myself?
Self-defence excludes liability where the danger was present, the defence necessary and the response proportionate. Where the limits were exceeded through misjudgement, the offence becomes a negligent one instead.
If a complaint has been filed
The medical certificate, the date of the complaint and the record of the incident decide the case. First contact is free and covered by professional privilege.
What a shove, a punch or a bar fight changes about the days that follow
The criminal grade of a fight matters less to ordinary life than the practical fallout, and that fallout begins within hours.
Work. An employer who hears of a charge for injuring someone may suspend, move or dismiss, especially in hospitality, security, education or care. A workplace that checks records may react to the existence of a complaint, not only to a conviction. Tell your lawyer exactly what your contract and any code of conduct say, before you speak to your manager.
Residence permit. For a non-EU citizen, a pending charge is something the authorities can weigh when a permit is renewed. An isolated incident documented honestly is easier to explain than an unexplained silence.
Travel and visas. Visa applications for other countries often ask about charges and convictions. A false answer can cause much greater harm than the underlying event. Ask for advice before filling in such forms.
Money. The injured person can claim damages, and a claim for medical costs, lost earnings or pain is added to any fine. Insurance policies, including travel cover, often exclude injuries caused deliberately.
Housing and neighbours. Where the fight was with a neighbour, a flatmate or a landlord, tenancy and community relations become strained and the other person may remain a daily presence.
Family. A partner or parent who saw the event may be a witness, which puts them in a difficult position. Talk to them about what each remembers only in the presence of the lawyer, or not at all.
After a fight the people involved face choices that each close something off, and the comparison below sets the available courses against what they cost.
| Choice in the days afterwards | What it involves | What it costs or closes off |
|---|---|---|
| Staying silent and instructing a lawyer | No account given until the file has been read | Nothing is lost, but the other account stands alone for a while |
| Apologising directly to the other person | Contact outside any formal channel | Read as an admission, and risks a further complaint about the contact |
| Settling and asking for the complaint to be withdrawn | Compensation agreed through the lawyers | Works only while the offence still depends on the complaint |
| Filing a complaint of your own | Your account is put on record formally | Both parties become suspects, and the deadline applies to you too |
| Doing nothing and waiting | The investigation proceeds without your material | Camera recordings and injury photographs are lost in the meantime |
People who arrive here after a night out, a family row or a street argument
Most people who read about assault in Italy are not violent by habit. They arrive here through a few typical routes.
A tourist or a student who was out late in a busy area ended up in a scuffle outside a bar. Perhaps the argument was about a seat, a drink, a remark about a partner, or a taxi. Somebody was hurt, or says so; the police were called; and you were taken to a station to give your details. You are not sure whether you are a suspect, a witness or a victim, and you may have been both.
A resident who was involved in a dispute with a neighbour or a colleague has been told that a complaint has been filed. You pushed, or you were pushed; there was a mark, a hospital visit, a medical certificate. The other person is now speaking of "assault", and a letter has come from a lawyer.
A parent whose adult child was in a fight abroad, or in Italy, is trying to understand what the paper means. A mother in another country has a photo of a bruised face and a short message that says only that the police are involved.
A person who defended himself or herself, and now fears that the defence will not be believed, also belongs here. In all of these, the key early fact is whether an injury was recorded by a doctor.
Documents and records to assemble after a fight, whether you hurt or were hurt
These cases turn on small pieces of paper and on the order in which things happened. Keep them in original form.
- Every medical document: the emergency-room report, the prognosis, discharge papers, photos of marks taken as soon as possible, and any later visit. If you were injured, these show the other person's conduct. If the other person was injured, they show how serious the injury really was.
- Photos and video of the place: lighting, layout, doors, steps, cameras on the building. Ask quickly, because venues overwrite recordings.
- Names and contact details of people who were present, collected without pressing anyone to say anything.
- Your clothes and shoes, unwashed, if they show damage or marks.
- Messages you sent or received before and after the event, in full, including those with the other person.
- Receipts and card statements from the evening, which establish times and what was drunk.
- The papers given by the police or hospital, including anything you were asked to sign, with a note of the language used.
- Any earlier history with the other person, such as previous threats or complaints.
- Insurance, employment and permit documents, in case a quick explanation to others is needed.
Put everything in a folder, physical or digital, in date order, and add nothing but dates. Your lawyer will want the raw material and not a summary.
Decisions in the days after a fight: apologise, settle, complain back or stay silent
Several options present themselves, and they are not equally safe.
Apologise. A direct apology, particularly face to face, may calm the other person, but it can be recorded and presented as an admission. If an apology matters, it is better made through lawyers in a form that expresses regret without describing the event.
Settle and ask for the complaint to be withdrawn. For the lesser forms of the offence, a complaint can be withdrawn and the case can end. The price is that a payment made in a rush can be too high or can be misunderstood; the other person can also change their mind. The withdrawal needs to be formal and accepted in the right way. Where an injury is recorded, the position may be less simple.
File your own complaint. If you were struck at the outset or were injured, you may have a complaint of your own, and the time to file is limited. Doing so protects your position and may lead the other side to talk. The price is that it can harden the dispute and that your account will be tested for inconsistencies.
Say nothing until you have advice. You have the right to stay quiet. The price is a slower case; the benefit is that you will not commit to a version you later wish to correct.
Whatever you choose, do it after speaking to a lawyer who has seen the medical papers.
Behaviour that damages a defence after an altercation
What people do after a fight often hurts more than the fight. Please avoid the following.
- Do not contact the other person to "sort it out". Direct contact can be read as intimidation, especially if friends are present.
- Do not post about the event or the other person. A video clip, a joke or a caption shows a state of mind and can be used.
- Do not change your story to fit what friends remember. Statements that shift can be compared and challenged. Say what you remember, and say that you do not remember when that is true.
- Do not clean up, wash clothes or delete footage. Evidence of marks and of the scene is valuable, and deletion looks like concealment.
- Do not leave the country in a hurry without advice. A sudden departure may be read as flight, and it makes it harder to be heard.
- Do not sign a statement in a language you do not read. Insist on an interpreter and a translation.
- Do not discuss the event in group chats or with the other person's friends.
- Do not ignore a letter that follows. A deadline may have started.
If the other side contacts you directly, do not answer and do not delete their message. Forward it to your lawyer and wait for advice before saying anything.
A fight case is decided on records created immediately afterwards, and the table sets out what to obtain, from whom and what it proves.
| Record | Where it comes from | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Medical certificate and the emergency department notes | The hospital or the treating doctor | Whether injury was caused, how serious, and over what recovery period |
| Photographs of your own injuries, dated | Taken by you or by somebody with you | Supports a defensive version that is otherwise undocumented |
| Camera recordings from the street or the premises | The business, the building or the local authority | Who moved first, which is the question the whole case turns on |
| Names and contact details of bystanders | The people present, taken down on the spot | Independent accounts, available only while they can still be traced |
| Messages exchanged before and after the incident | Your own devices and accounts | Context, provocation and what each party understood |
| The date the complaint was lodged | The file, once the defence can see it | Whether the deadline for complaining had already passed |
Questions to bring to the lawyer after an assault allegation
Whether you are accused or injured, the following questions go to the heart of how these files develop.
- Is the complaint the type that needs to be filed by the injured person, and has it been filed in time?
- What does the medical certificate actually record, and does the prognosis support the offence being charged?
- Could the facts be seen as a different offence, such as a fight between several people, and what would that change?
- Is there room for a claim that I acted to protect myself, and what in the file supports or undermines it?
- Can the complaint be withdrawn, how is that done properly, and what happens if the other person changes their mind?
- What damages might the injured person claim, and can that claim be dealt with separately?
- How do I deal with my employer, my permit and my visa applications while the case is open?
- Do the venue's cameras or witnesses help me, and who should request them?
- If I am the injured person, how do I preserve my complaint and my claim?
Add questions of your own, especially about money, work and travel. Write down the answers during the call, because it is easy to leave a meeting with only part of the advice remembered.
Ask also what the lawyer would want to know if the other side proposed a meeting, since offers of a conversation often arrive without warning.
When a fight involves a foreign visitor, a foreign employer or a home-country court
A scuffle between people from different countries creates problems that a local quarrel does not.
The initial problem is language. Police forms, statements and medical reports are written in Italian. If you were asked to sign something and did not understand it, tell your lawyer exactly what you were handed and in what language it was explained. You are entitled to an interpreter and to translation of the essential documents.
The next is evidence that is not in Italy: a doctor at home who examined you after your return, photographs on a phone that went with you across the border, friends who left the country. Collect statements and records in writing, and ask the lawyer how they should be translated and presented.
A visitor who must go home before the case moves can usually do so, but you should leave an address, a reliable email and a way of reaching a person who can receive paper. A lawyer can then represent you, so travel is not needed for every hearing.
Employers abroad sometimes hear of a charge through news or colleagues. Prepare an accurate, short explanation. The consulate may help with contact and emergency documents, but it does not take a position on who is right.
Medical and legal words that appear on assault and injury papers
The Italian papers use a few terms that decide the offence, and it helps to know them before you read the opening page.
- Percosse: striking someone without causing an illness of the body or mind. A lower offence, prosecuted on complaint.
- Lesioni personali: personal injury. It applies when the blow causes an illness, however slight and short-lived.
- Malattia: in the criminal sense, any functional alteration of the body, even minor. A bruise with pain and limited movement can count; a passing redness usually does not.
- Referto: the report from the emergency room, which is often the central document.
- Prognosi: the doctor's estimate of how long recovery takes. It can determine how the offence is graded and whether the complaint is needed.
- Pronto soccorso: the emergency room.
- Querela: the victim's formal complaint, with a time limit counted from learning of the facts.
- Procedibilità d'ufficio: prosecution without the victim's request, applicable in more serious situations.
- Lesioni gravi e gravissime: serious and very serious injuries, with separate and heavier ranges.
Bring any word you do not understand to the lawyer in the form in which you saw it, with the page it was printed on. Medical wording in Italian reports can look alarming to a foreign reader even when it records something minor, and the reverse is also true.
Ask for the exact meaning of each abbreviation in the report, and ask whether the doctor who wrote it can be asked to clarify it, since the prognosis may be the hinge of the whole case.
How the firm works on assault files, from the opening call to the hearing
Send what you have by email to avvmassimoromano@gmail.com or call the number on the contact page. Photographs of the medical report, of any police paper and of marks on the body are the most useful starting material, together with a short note of the day, place and people involved.
The initial call has a practical purpose: to understand what the other side says, what the medical papers record, and whether any deadline is close. The lawyer will ask about the event in order, but will not push you to produce a perfect story. You will be told whether to make a statement, wait, or provide a written memorandum.
The firm has offices in Rome, Milan and Naples. Hearings in other cities are covered through colleagues, and travel to Italy is avoided where a power of attorney will do. Communication with you is in English; documents in Italian are explained and, where required, translated.
When the other party is willing to resolve the matter, the firm handles contact with the other side's lawyer, so that you are not exposed to a charge of pressure. Where a settlement is possible, it is drafted so that it is formal, accepted and signed in the correct way.
If the event happened abroad as well as in Italy, or witnesses are in another country, the firm coordinates with a lawyer there. Urgent matters, such as an arrest after a fight or a summons for the next morning, are reachable around the clock.
About the lawyer
Criminal defence is the whole of this practice. Avv. Massimo Romano is enrolled with the Ordine degli Avvocati di Napoli and pleads before the Court of Cassation; the work that reaches him concerns Italian criminal procedure, extradition, European arrest warrants, and cases where an Italian citizen is held by a foreign authority. He takes instructions directly. The first contact is short and factual: what the charge is said to be, where the person is, what has already been signed or handed over. Nothing is promised at that stage, because the file has usually not been read. What follows the call is practical, a list of documents to collect, contact with the authority or with local counsel abroad, and a plan for the next hearing or request. Where relatives do not speak Italian, the conversation continues in their own language, and written updates are sent in that language as well, so nobody relies on second-hand translation.
Ring the office directly, or write on WhatsApp if calling is difficult. Keep beside you the summons or the record of the search, and the name of any lawyer already acting.
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