Methodology — Italy
This page explains how Tarifo's Italy calculator turns a case description into a fee estimate. Two engines run in parallel: the lawyer fee under DM 55/2014 (parametri forensi), and the state court fee — the contributo unificato — under D.P.R. 30 maggio 2002, n. 115, art. 13. Both operate on the same (case_id, inputs) pair; the page below focuses on the state-fee side because that is where Italy's distinctive rules — step-flat bands, the decreto-ingiuntivo halving, the labour exemption — live.
Two engines, one shared input shape.
The Italy state-fee calculator encodes the contributo unificatoItaly's unified court fee — a single banded charge payable to the state to register a case, scaling with the claim value. It is a court cost, separate from the lawyer's compenso.Glossary → of the Testo Unico spese di giustizia (D.P.R. 30 maggio 2002, n. 115), Parte I, Titolo I, Capo IV (art. 9–18; band scale at art. 13). The calculator tracks the testo vigente dal 1.1.2025: bands, c.1-bis stage multipliers, and c.6-bis administrative amounts are unchanged since the 18.10.2022 Cartabia extract (verified against Normattiva 2026-05-22). Two non-scope commi changed after that extract — c.1-quinquies (D.Lgs. 164/2024) and new c.1-sexies (cittadinanza CU 600 €/ricorrente, L. 207/2024) — neither maps to a current case_id. Adjacent statutes — imposta di bollo (DPR 642/1972), Tariffa Registro Imprese, imposta di registro on judgments, and the notarial tariff — are out of scope.
The lawyer-fee side encodes DM 55/2014 (parametri forensiItaly's forensic parameters (DM 55/2014) — the reference values courts use to quantify a lawyer's fee by phase of proceedings and value bracket.Glossary →), revised 23.10.2022. Following CJEU case-law and Italian competition rulings, the parametri are reference valuesA tariff figure that is advisory, not mandatory — a guide to what a fee customarily is, which the lawyer and client remain free to depart from. Every number Tarifo shows is a reference value.Glossary →, not binding floorsA tariff floor a court could once not go below. Several EU jurisdictions abandoned binding minimums after CJEU rulings; where that has happened, the same figures now serve only as reference values.Glossary →. Tarifo presents them as references throughout the UI and in the disclaimer copy under the result panel.
State court fees fall into four shapes.
- Step-flat bands by claim value (art. 13 c.1)
The dominant shape. Seven flat amounts read off by claim value: 43 € (≤ 1 100), 98 € (≤ 5 200), 237 € (≤ 26 000), 518 € (≤ 52 000 € and valore indeterminabile), 759 € (≤ 260 000), 1 214 € (≤ 520 000), 1 686 € (> 520 000). Each band is flat across its entire range, not proportional. Giudice di Pace uses the same bands with a valore indeterminabile of 237 € instead of 518 €.
- Halved bands for libro IV tit. I (art. 13 c.3)
Decreto ingiuntivo, convalida di locazione and the other special proceedings in libro IV tit. I c.p.c. pay half the ordinary band. 30 000 € → 259 € (518 € / 2); 100 000 € → 379,50 €; 600 000 € → 843 €. Labour / previdenza when CU is due also use the halved table.
- Flat amounts for processi esecutivi / volontaria
Esecuzione immobiliare 278 €, mobiliare ≥ 2 500 € 139 €, mobiliare < 2 500 € 43 €, opposizione atti esecutivi 168 €, fallimentare 851 €, volontaria giurisdizione 98 € (all art. 13 c.2 / c.1 lett. b).
- Administrative + tributario
TAR / Consiglio di Stato pay a flat CU (art. 13 c.6-bis): 650 € ordinary, 1 800 € rito abbreviato, 2 000 / 4 000 / 6 000 € for the three appalti-pubblici bands, 300 € accesso / immigrazione / ottemperanza, 0 € ambientale. Commissioni tributarie use a banded scale 30–1 500 € (art. 13 c.6-quater) on both grades.
Italy is intentionally not in STAGE_MODELLING_JURISDICTIONS. The art. 13 c.1-bis stage multipliers — appello ×1,5, Cassazione ×2 — are baked into the corte_appello and cassazione case types, not a separate stage toggle. The user picks the procedural stage by case type, which means the c.1-bis multiplier is always visible on the page rather than hidden in a selector.
CU: 0 %. Lawyer fees: optional 22 % IVA + 4 % CPA.
The contributo unificato is a tax, not a service. The calculator displays it at face value with no IVA line and never applies the 22 % IVA or 4 % CPA toggles from the lawyer-fee side. Lawyer fees are subject to IVA + CPA when the lawyer is IVA-registered; the result panel exposes both as toggles on the lawyer-fee number only. Flipping either has no effect on the contributo unificato.
A 30 000 € civil claim, first instance.
Take a standard civil-claim filing with a claim value of 30 000 € (civil_ordinary, first instance):
| Step | Source | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Valore della causa | input | 30 000,00 € |
| Banda lett. d) (art. 13 c.1) — superiore a 26 000, fino a 52 000 € | band lookup | 518,00 € |
The same case at the appello stage maps to the corte_appello case type and applies art. 13 c.1-bis ×1,5 → 777,00 €. At Cassazione the cassazione case type applies ×2 → 1 036,00 €. The same claim value filed as a decreto_ingiuntivo is halved under art. 13 c.3 → 259,00 € (518 € / 2). These four figures match fixtures 1.6, 5.1, 5.2 and 2.2 in the engine’s unit tests.
Where the two engines disagree on purpose.
Italy has four intentional divergences between the state-fee engine and a naive carry-over from the lawyer-fee side:
decreto_ingiuntivoArt. 13 c.3 cuts the ordinary band by half for every special proceeding in libro IV tit. I c.p.c. — a 30 000 € filing pays 259 €, not 518 €. The lawyer-side scale (DM 55/2014 Tabella 8 valore medio) is completely independent; the two numbers are not on the same scale and must not be cross-checked. This is the primary regression test in the engine suite.
The c.1-bis multipliers (appello ×1,5, Cassazione ×2) are baked into the corte_appello and cassazione case types rather than exposed via the shared stage picker. Italy is not in STAGE_MODELLING_JURISDICTIONS. A naive “first instance + stage multiplier” port would double-count the multiplier.
labour_* / previdenzaUnder art. 9 c.1-bis the CU is due in labour / previdenza filings only when the litigant’s reddito imponibile exceeds 3 × the art. 76 patrocinio-a-spese-dello-Stato amount — currently 40 978,92 € (3 × 13 659,64 € per D.M. 22 aprile 2025, GU n. 159 del 11.07.2025). The v1 calculator does not collect an income input; it defaults labour_employment and previdenza to no_fee with a tooltip naming the threshold. The lawyer side still bills the case under DM 55/2014.
Both tar and consiglio_di_stato pay the c.6-bis lett. e) 650 € flat (modulo the rito-abbreviato / appalti / accesso variants). The c.1-bis appello ×1,5 does not apply to administrative CU — TAR is the first-instance default and Consiglio di Stato uses the same 650 € flat, not 975 €. A naive port of the civil stage multiplier to admin would be wrong.
A second class of divergence is purely categorical: extra-judicial work (stragiudiziale, stragiudiziale_oraria), mediation, arbitration, the atto di precetto (not a court filing), and iscrizione_ipotecaria (governed by imposta ipotecaria, outside DPR 115 scope) return null on the state side and the UI hides the state-fee block. Two deferred items track in the spec but do not affect numbers today: the art. 30 27 € anticipazione forfettaria add-on (civil filings only) is not yet rendered as a separate line, and the administrative-subject-matter selector defaults to 650 € without exposing a sub-input.
- Statute
- D.P.R. 30 maggio 2002, n. 115 — contributo unificato (art. 13); DM 55/2014 on the lawyer side (DPR 115/2002 art. 13 testo vigente dal 1.1.2025)
- Currency
- EUR
- VAT treatment
- Contributo unificato: 0 % (it is a tax — no IVA, no CPA). Lawyer fees: 22 % IVA + 4 % CPA surfaced as UX toggles.
- Last verified