How long before you find out about a criminal complaint in Italy

The complaint (denuncia, or querela when the victim’s own request is required) reaches the public prosecutor’s office, directly or through the police or the Carabinieri. The prosecutor records it at once in the register of criminal offences and adds the name of the person to whom the facts are attributed once there is evidence against them, either at the same time or later (art. 335, paragraphs 1 and 1-bis, of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure). The time limits for the investigation run from that entry, not from the complaint.

Investigations are confidential. The prosecutor need not tell the suspect that a case exists until a step involving them has to be taken: a person can therefore be under investigation for months without receiving anything.

The difference between the two kinds of complaint also matters. For offences prosecuted only on the victim’s request, the victim must as a rule file the querela within three months of learning of the facts (art. 124 of the Italian Criminal Code). For offences prosecuted ex officio there is no such deadline: a case may start years later, as long as the offence is not time-barred.

In practice, the person reported learns of the case at one of these moments. Not all of them are mandatory, and they do not come in a fixed order.

• A summons from the judicial police. The Carabinieri or the police call the person in to identify them and ask them to declare or choose an address for service; on that occasion they state, where already possible, the provisions allegedly breached, the date and place of the facts and the authority in charge (art. 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).
• The notice of investigation (informazione di garanzia). It is sent when the prosecutor has to take a step at which the defence lawyer is entitled to be present (art. 369): we cover it in our article on what to do when a notice of investigation arrives.
• A search or a seizure, often without any warning: see our article on what to do during and after a police search.
• The notice of closure of the investigation (avviso di conclusione delle indagini). If the prosecutor does not ask for dismissal, they serve this notice and file the case documents (art. 415-bis). For many people it is the first contact with the proceedings.
• The notice that the file has been deposited because of inaction. If, once the time limits have run out, the prosecutor has neither brought charges nor asked for dismissal, the file is deposited and the suspect receives a notice allowing them to examine it (art. 415-ter).
• A criminal conviction order (decreto penale di condanna), discussed below.

Dismissal, on the other hand, is as a rule not communicated to the suspect: the order is served on them only if they were held in pre-trial custody during the proceedings (art. 409, paragraph 1).

Timing depends on the offence, on how complex the investigation is and on the prosecutor’s workload, but the law sets limits. As a rule the investigation lasts one year from the entry of the suspect’s name, six months for minor offences (contravvenzioni) and eighteen months for the most serious crimes, with a single extension; the details, and the consequences of a late entry, are explained in our article on the notice of investigation.

Once the investigation has ended, the prosecutor has three months to decide whether to bring charges or ask for dismissal; the period is nine months for the most serious crimes listed in art. 407, paragraph 2 (art. 407-bis, paragraph 2). If the notice of closure was served, the three months run from the end of the time given to the defence after that notice.

For a conviction order the limit is shorter: the prosecutor may ask the judge for one within one year of the entry of the suspect’s name in the register (art. 459, paragraph 1). In short, in ordinary proceedings it is normal for several months to pass between the complaint and the first document received, and it is not unusual for it to take more than a year.

When the prosecutor considers that a fine is enough, including a fine replacing a prison sentence, they may ask the preliminary investigations judge for a criminal conviction order (art. 459). The judge decides on the papers, without a hearing: that is why the order may be the first document the person receives, and it already contains the penalty.

The order is served on the person convicted and on their lawyer (art. 460, paragraph 3). From that moment there are fifteen days to choose:

• to lodge an objection (opposizione), asking for an immediate trial, a fast-track trial or a plea agreement (art. 461), or for the proceedings to be suspended with probation, messa alla prova (Constitutional Court, judgment no. 201/2016);
• to pay the fine reduced by one fifth, waiving the objection (art. 460, paragraph 5).

Without an objection the order becomes enforceable. It carries no procedural costs or ancillary penalties and is not binding in civil or administrative proceedings; the offence is extinguished if the fine has been paid and, within five years (two for minor offences), the person commits no offence of the same kind (art. 460, paragraph 5). It is still a conviction, though, and the choice between paying and objecting should be made with a lawyer after reading the file.

A person who did not learn of the order in time may ask to be allowed to object out of time, within thirty days of actually learning of it, unless they deliberately waived the objection (art. 175, paragraphs 2 and 2-bis).

The first document served on a suspect is, as a rule, handed to them in person. If they cannot be found, it may be left at home with a member of the household or the building’s porter, or at the workplace with the employer or whoever receives documents; if nobody is available, it is deposited at the town hall, a notice is posted on the door and a registered letter reports the deposit (art. 157).

After the first, documents are served on the defence lawyer, whether chosen or court-appointed (art. 157-bis). The most important ones are the exception: the notice of the preliminary hearing, the summons to trial and the conviction order go to the address the suspect has declared or chosen for service, which may also be a certified e-mail address (PEC). Anyone who moves must report the change; otherwise these documents too are handed to the lawyer (art. 161, paragraphs 1 and 4).

This leads to a practical point for anyone living abroad or moving often: always collect court documents held at the post office and give your lawyer up-to-date telephone and e-mail details, as the law itself requires (art. 161, paragraph 01). Not collecting a registered letter does not stop the proceedings: the Court of Cassation rejected the application of a convicted person who claimed not to have known about the trial, pointing out that it was for him to prove it (Court of Cassation, Criminal Section V, no. 17226/2025).

1. Ask the prosecutor’s office for the register entries. The person concerned or their lawyer may ask to be told of any entries in their name. A negative answer does not settle the matter: disclosure is excluded for certain serious crimes and the prosecutor may order secrecy for up to three months (art. 335, paragraphs 3 and 3-bis).
2. Appoint a defence lawyer of your choice and declare or choose an address for service where documents will actually reach you, possibly at the lawyer’s office.
3. Collect and keep documents, messages, e-mails and contracts relating to the facts, without altering or deleting them.
4. Do not try to sort things out yourself with the person who filed the complaint or with possible witnesses: any contact should be assessed with your lawyer.
5. Consider acting during the investigation. The defence may file written submissions and requests with the prosecutor (art. 367): a document produced at the right time sometimes stops a case from going further.

In our criminal defence work many matters begin this way, before any official document: finding out early whether there is a case, and for which offence, avoids having to decide within fifteen or twenty days.

Imagine the director of a Milan company who, after falling out with a business partner, hears from a mutual acquaintance that the partner has reported him for taking company money. Three months pass with no news. Through his lawyer he asks the prosecutor’s office for the register entries: the answer shows a case recorded in his name, the date of the entry and the legal classification of the facts.

From that date the investigation time limits can be worked out. Meanwhile the lawyer reconstructs the disputed payments from the accounts and files a written submission with the documents that justify them. If documents arrive later, the director receives them at his declared address without surprises, with a defence already in place.