Under Italian law, the only circumstances in which professional secrecy does not apply are those where the disclosure of certain information regarding the lawyer's client becomes necessary, for example:

• In connection with preparing the defense of the client
• To prevent the client from committing any particularly serious crime (reato di particolare gravità)
• To prove facts in a dispute between the lawyer and the client
• In proceedings concerning how the client's interests were handled

The disclosure of privileged documents and/or information must be limited to those facts strictly necessary to achieve the limited purposes set out above.

The majority of commentators take the view that the possession by any third party of a document which is subject to professional secrecy is unlawful if possession was obtained as a result of a breach of the lawyer's duty of professional secrecy. According to this view, a third party is required to maintain the secrecy of any confidential documents received from lawyers in breach of their duty of professional secrecy. This conclusion is indirectly confirmed by the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits the use of evidence obtained in breach of the law.

Where a third party has received confidential documents by mistake, it is possible to bring a legal action for a court order requiring the third party to return the documents.