The fact does not exist. With this formula, the Court of Vibo Valentia acquitted the lawyer Francesco Stilo of the charge of unfaithful legal aid, closing a proceeding which in recent months had sparked confrontation between the prosecution and the defense over alleged irregularities in the exercise of the professional activity.
The decision comes at the end of the hearing, during which some defense choices adopted by the lawyer in criminal proceedings against one of his clients were examined. In particular, at the center of the dispute was the management of technical assessments deemed relevant to the procedural strategy. A reconstruction that the prosecutor’s office had deemed well-founded, so much so that it requested, during the indictment, a sentence of two years and eight months in prison. Stilo’s defenders, the lawyers Giuseppe Bagnato and Valerio Mercuri, had a different opinion and instead supported the absence of elements, both on a factual and legal level, suitable for configuring criminal liability. The judge accepted this approach, believing that what emerged during the trial was not sufficient to demonstrate conduct contrary to professional duties.
Hence the full acquittal, with the exclusion of any criminal relevance of the disputed facts. The outcome was different for a further dispute, relating to patrimonial profiles linked to the professional relationship with the client. On this point the proceedings concluded with a declaration that there was no need to proceed, following the dismissal of the complaint. A story which therefore ends without convictions, but which brings the issue of the boundary between defensive choices and professional responsibility back to the centre.