Both individuals and companies may frequently find themselves in need of legal advice from a criminal lawyer.
This necessity may arise on various occasions: for example, following the notification of an act related to criminal proceedings; after a request from the Judicial Police to acquire documentation or conduct inspections and site visits; or whenever it is necessary to assess the potential criminal liability of certain conduct.
In these cases, it is necessary to turn to a criminal lawyer to obtain all the specific information, taking immediate action if criminal proceedings are already pending or being preemptively informed of the possible risks of committing crimes.
In practice, individuals and companies, after initial contact with the chosen criminal lawyer, may submit their inquiry, providing the relevant supporting documentation and formalizing a request for a legal opinion.
The criminal lawyer, in order to respond to the formulated query, must first analyze the documents related to the specific case, then identify and verify the applicable legislation in detail and subsequently conduct an in-depth jurisprudential review of the precedents from higher courts and, where relevant, from lower courts in cases similar to the one under review.
If requested, these activities may be compiled into a written document to be delivered to the client – a pro veritate legal opinion – which summarizes the specific case, the applicable legislation, the most relevant case law and the conclusions in response to the formulated query.
A pro veritate legal opinion can thus be used by the client, whether an individual or a company, to evaluate how to proceed in a given case, whether judicial or extrajudicial, with all the necessary elements concerning possible criminal implications.
It is, therefore, a fundamental tool for the client facing a criminal law matter, whether as a potential injured party or as a suspect/defendant, whether in a judicial or even extrajudicial context.