There is no safe haven for companies’ and people’s reputation when undergoing a high profile criminal lawsuit in Italy.
Forget class action cases or multimillion civil lawsuits, like the recent invasion of privacy case involving US wrestler Hulk Hogan, who was awarded $115 million in damages for the publication of a two-minute sex tape in the website Gawker. When coming to litigation issues in Italy, you will find a completely different set. In civil lawsuits, you will run few risks, as lawyers always prefer to negotiate their claims for damages far away from the media attention, while the class action institution is almost non existent in Italy and, in addition, it’s forbidden for claims involving either the public administration or the financial sector. But watch out for criminal cases, because there is almost no reputation safe haven when a company or a private undergoes a high profile criminal lawsuit. In fact, Italy lacks something similar to the UK contempt of court rule, which prevents the press from publishing anything that may interfere in the impartial legal proceedings. Following such rule, in the UK the media can only describe a case when the trial is over. On the contrary, in Italy, the legal proceeding goes public since the first day and the judgement in the court will be influenced by the media and the public opinion. Sometimes you will even learn from the newspapers that you or your company are under investigation. Then: be prepared.
StampaFinanziaria has a strong track record in litigation communication, starting from the financial bankruptcy case of dairy producer Parmalat, in 2003, to a number of most recent lawsuits with environmental relevance. Contact us at: info@stampafinanziaria.it
