How to sue a person

You are asking yourself this question, because you have been the victim of damage: from the apartment above yours, water has infiltrated from a broken pipe into the bathroom of the aforementioned building. You have not been able to reach an agreement with your neighbor for compensation and you must necessarily initiate legal action to obtain the right compensation. To do this, you contacted a lawyer, but regardless of his expertise and his work, you would like more information on the procedure to follow. Therefore, you ask yourself: how do you sue someone ? How is the related procedure carried out? Could I sue a person without a lawyer?

Suing a person: the application

The first thing to do in order to start a lawsuit against a person is, surely, to prepare the introductory act and, in this case, the so-called summons is assumed. In essence, it is a document which contains all the elements necessary to be able to formalize a legal action [1] . In a nutshell, they are:

• the parties to the proceeding . The latter must be identified with name, surname, residence and tax code. The one who introduces the lawsuit is technically called plaintiff , while the one who undergoes it and is invoked in court is called defendant ;
• the presentation of the facts . Basically, in the introductory act you must tell and specify what happened, since it will be a necessary prerequisite for the reasons of law on which your case is based;
• the elements of law, the means of proof and the object of your question. When you sue someone, in the introductory act , you must explain on which law or article of the Code your reasons are based and which are the objective elements you have to support your claims. You must also specify, by virtue of what happened, what you are entitled to (for example, compensation of 1,000 euros);
• the date of appearance . It is necessary to indicate the date on which the first hearing before the magistrate to be designated will be held. It is a purely indicative date, since the judicial office in question, as a rule, moves it according to its needs (for example, as a result of the large number of cases to be managed). Lastly, remember that the date set must be such as to allow notification of the deed to the counterparty at least 90 days in advance, for cases before the court and, in any case, 45 days before, for disputes before the justice of the peace.

To the elements described above, it is also necessary to add the indication of the appointed prosecutor and the power of attorney conferred on him, of the judicial office before which the case will have to be held (tribunal of …. or justice of the peace of ….) and of the invitation to the counterparty to appear in court, at least twenty days before the date indicated in the deed.

To his a person – the notification

After preparing the introductory deed, it is, of course, essential that it be brought to the attention of the other party. To do this, you must go to the competent area notification office (called Unep), where you will find the bailiffs responsible for the notification of the documents. At that time, the deed must be delivered in two copies: one will represent the original deed which will be returned to you after having made the notification , while the other will be delivered to the addressee (obviously, if there are multiple defendants, you will have to prepare multiple copies).

Suing a person: the procedure

Once the introductory deed has been notified, withdrawn from the notification office, all that remains is to formalize the case before the invoked judicial office, by means of the so-called registration in the role . In practice, the party file must be prepared, which contains the notified deed and the documents supporting the judicial action, and it must be filed with the court or the justice of the peace indicated in the summons. Remember that you have ten days to register the case, starting from the date of notification for judgments before the court, while for those within the competence of the justice of the peace, registration can also take place in the imminence of the scheduled hearing .

Once the registration has been completed, the judicial office will designate the magistrate and will fix the definitive hearing for the first appearance of the parties (obviously, it will not be the only hearing in the trial), which will be followed by the preliminary investigation phase of the procedure (where, in practice, the parties will demonstrate their reasons, for example, by listening to witnesses ) and that in which the cause, ready for the decision, will be concluded with the sentence .

Case against a person: can it be done without a lawyer?

Technically, it is said that the citizen does not have the ius postulandi , i.e. the right to propose and discuss a legal action before the judiciary. Therefore, as a rule, the assistance of a qualified professional is required. The law, in fact, admits to being in court personally only before the justice of the peace and for causes of modest value (within the limit of 1,100 euros) [2] .

However, it should be noted that a lawsuit, with all the procedural and practical rules to follow, can hardly be conducted comfortably and without negative consequences by someone who is totally unfamiliar with the matter. Therefore, it is always advisable to be assisted by a lawyer .