Our firm has become a leading player in this field, gaining the trust of virtually all the shipping operators based in Italy, Greece and Turkey and their P&I insurers located mainly in England, Scandinavia, and the USA. This is an extremely specialised field because the sources, which interact with the institutions of criminal law, consist of special laws, most of them of supranational and conventional in origin (IMO, EU, etc). This expertise has been acquired and consolidated thanks to decades of relations with the world’s most important shipowners, terminal operators, shipping agencies, shipping companies, insurance correspondents and port system authorities.
Experience and achievements have also been attained thanks to daily collaboration with the leading marine law firms representing true Italian excellency in Genoa, as well as in Naples, Salerno, Livorno, Venice, Trieste, Palermo Cagliari, and with the most accredited technical consultants in the field of naval and chemical engineering.
There has been an exponential rise in the number of criminal regulations and sanctions, both domestic and supranational, aimed at protecting the interests of the Treasury. This, and the undoubted complexity of the relevant tax legislation, has increased the risk of a criminal-tax dispute for which the related sanctions are decidedly severe, both in terms of actual punishment, and in terms of various types of measures that can affect the taxpayer’s assets (i.e., preventive seizures and confiscations). The recent inclusion of the main tax offences in the list of those sanctioned by Legislative Decree 231/01 has aggravated the consequences for companies when the offences are committed by managers or employees with a supervisory role.
Studio Legale Fumagalli can provide qualified assistance to its clients in such matters, including consultancy services for entrepreneurs who need to make decisions which impact their tax obligations.
The Firm is gaining expertise in assisting individuals who, although third parties and extraneous to the violations subject of the criminal proceedings, have nevertheless been wrongfully affected by seizures and confiscations adopted by the judicial authorities against defendants and those convicted of tax offences; these parties are mainly banks, bankruptcy receivers, creditors of the defendant/convicted person and third parties participating in compulsory expropriation proceedings against the latter.
Our Firm provides companies, and thus directors, auditors and supervisory bodies, constant and qualified support, from preventive consultation in matters involving criminal risks to procedural assistance.
The results obtained by the Firm in criminal proceedings concerning health and safety in the workplace have been such that the main insurance companies have chosen our services to offer top-notch comprehensive legal assistance to their policyholders.
As experts in national and international legislation on the prevention of accidents and occupational hazards, our solicitors offer companies not only legal assistance, but also out-of-court advice aimed at identifying and neutralising potential risk factors linked to their field of business. Given that these offences are among those that entail liability pursuant to Article 231/01, this kind of assistance has become essential and is provided in collaboration with highly reputable experts in the preparation of Organisation and Control Models and in the defence of companies in court.
The introduction of new offences and the significant harsher main and accessory sanctions prescribed for traffic related injuries and homicide, hit-and-runs and driving or operating under the influence or while intoxicated, require special expertise to properly manage the relevant cases, both in the interest of clients (often freight companies) and insurers who cover their TPL. Currently, our firm also provides legal assistance in administrative proceedings related to the suspension or revocation of driving licences.
The growing concern shown by modern legislations (both national and international) for safeguarding the environment (in its various forms: soil, inland and marine waters, and air) has led to the introduction of new types of offences and to an exponential increase in the relevant penalties, accessory sanctions, and restorative/reparative measures for so-called environmental damage.
These new cases have also been included among the crimes that entail the liability of the organisation pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/01.
Our solicitors have acquired the necessary experience to provide assistance in these matters, including administrative proceedings involving the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Health and its various branches.
The steady increase in the number of offences entailing the para-criminal liability of organisations, companies first and foremost, and the severity of the relevant sanctions and precautionary regimes (e.g., disqualification from carrying on business activities and judicial administration) impose on private directors numerous and complex obligations that can no longer be resolved by merely complying with the law and the articles of association.
The firm, with the support of other suitably structured professionals, provides companies and organisations not only with representation in proceedings where they are subject to investigation or accused pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/2001, but also consultancy services to draft and update organisational models aimed at preventing or reducing the risk of criminal offences or mitigating the consequences of sanctions.
The extraordinary expansion of mass media, coupled with the impossibility of adequate monitoring of the behaviour of those who use them for various reasons, has in fact turned into a fertile breeding ground for various types of aggression towards the image and reputation of others; on the other hand, those who exercise their right (and sometimes duty) within the limits of the law to inform and critique risk being involved in criminal proceedings for defamation, often extending to newspapers and chief editors.
For these reasons, our Firm has gained considerable experience in an area that is constantly being revised, also because of repeated interventions by the European Court of Human Rights and our Constitutional Court.
The astounding development of the Internet has also led to the emergence of new forms of crime, so-called “cybercrimes”, which exploit the reach of modern technology: phishing, cyber-attacks, identity theft, and violations of privacy, to name a few.
Studio Legale Fumagalli offers legal assistance to both private individuals and corporate entities in proceedings concerning cybercrimes.