Italian lawyer and foreign client: how to start working together

Oftentimes our foreign clients get in touch with us because they have been involved in a civil proceeding in Italy; therefore, they need a lawyer who can assist and represent them.

The first issue is talking to each other. I hear what you say: lawyer and client could just exchange e-mails but – you know – there's no replacement for a real conversation when someone is trying to explain his problems, needs or goals.

Then it's crucial to collect all the information and the documents required to provide the client with a rough estimate of the legal expenses he's likely to face. Legal expenses are made up of fees and costs. Fees relate to the services billed by the attorney or staff; postage, court filing fees, messenger fees, mileage – these are all costs.

If the client is happy with our estimate, we should immediately inform him that we need to receive a power of attorney called “procura alle liti” in order to represent him in Court; we already talked about this in a previous article.

Depending on the Country he lives in, the client could be either unsure or completely unaware of those peculiar traits of our legal system that we should touch upon as soon as possible, such as the average length of a lawsuit and the rules governing the assessment of lawyers' fees arising out of litigation.

We'll expand on each of these traits – and many more – in future articles and videos.

Finally, once the general terms of the legal assistance are clear to both parties, a contract between lawyer and client shall be sealed for mutual peace of mind, covering all the aspects of the relationship – from billing to reporting – in full detail.