There are essentially 6 main kinds of records in Italy:
- criminal record (also called "criminal / penal certificate" it lists past criminal convictions in Italy);
- civil record (contains some civil judgments, such as bankruptcy, ..);
- general certificate of civile and criminal records (a sum of 1 and 2);
- record of pending chrages (contains information about charges not having filed before the court; it is limited to the single prosecutor office which is handling the case);
- record of pending trials (contains information about ongoing trials and it is limited to the court which is handling the case);
- police record database (also called CED, a geneal database of a lot of types of informations, held by police and not by judicial authorities as 1 - 4).
Criminal record
It lists past convictions: see, for example of a "clean" record, example of italian criminal record.
It has to be requested at Court ("ufficio del casellario giudiziale") and has a cost of ? 14,62 plus ? 3,54 (? 7,08 if urgent, what means within 3 days); sadly, ther could be important delays in response.
It has to be mentioned that the law does exclude some convitions if the request of record is made by a private citizen (authorities see all records); therefore it could be useful to request a "visura" (art. 33 D.P.R. 313/2002) which is anonymous but lists all convictions.
The criminal record can be used for 6 months after release.
Omitting to declare previous convictions when legally requested is a crime under italian law; acquittals do not have to be declared.
How to request a criminal record in Italy
In fact, everybody can request his own criminal record personally (no fax or email reqests).
It is possibile to give a psecial power of attorney,for exaple toa lwyer (is not mandatory): the power of attornery has to be completed and ID's have to be attached.
