In Italy a sworn or official translation may be made before one of the following:
- the civil Court, at the office responsible for sworn translations;
- the office of the Justice of the Peace, civil section, responsible for the swearing of expert reports and translations;
- a notary's office, in the presence of the translator and the notary.
The oath of an expert report or translation
The swearing of an expert report, or of a translation of a document drawn up in a foreign language, is a certification procedure initiated by a private party, usually a technical expert, by which legal effect is sought for a document drawn up by the same person requesting the oath. Some commentators distinguish between an "asseverated" and a "sworn" expert report, but the legislator has used the two terms interchangeably without defining a difference, and in practice none exists: an asseverated report is an out-of-court report in respect of which an oath is taken to attest its faithful and correct execution.
The legal basis
Article 5 of Royal Decree no. 1366 of 9 October 1922, still in force, provides that affidavits and the records of oaths of out-of-court expert reports are received by the court registrar. The oath is therefore a public act within the competence of the registrar: swearing without the presence of a public official has no legal significance.
Competence and procedure
As clarified by Ministry of Justice note no. 1622/99/U of 16 June 1999, the power to receive oaths belongs, without territorial distinction, to all registrars of the judicial offices, including those of the Justice of the Peace. The translator must appear in person before the registrar, carrying an identity document, and deliver the sheets of the translation with any attachments, bound by stapling or binding. The sheets must be stamped and signed by the translator, including the joins between pages, the last page must bear the date, and the oath record must be attached. Where the translation is to be sent abroad, the signature of the registrar who received the oath must also be legalised.
The legal value of a sworn translation
The Court of Cassation has repeatedly held (for example Cass. civ., Section III, 11 February 2002, no. 1902) that an out-of-court expert report, even if sworn before the registrar, constitutes a defensive allegation whose weight is freely assessed by the court. A false oath constitutes the offence under article 483 of the Criminal Code (false statement by a private individual in a public act), punishable by imprisonment of up to two years, provided the falsity is intentional.
The oath before the Court of Rome follows a precise procedure, from the composition of the file to the signing of the record before the officer, described in the guide on how the sworn translation procedure works and in the rules of the Court of Rome.