Cause frivole e dovere di dissuasione del cliente

The essay examines the phenomenon of frivolous lawsuits and the corresponding duty of the lawyer to dissuade the client from initiating or pursuing judicial actions lacking a reasonable foundation. Drawing on the Italian case-law framework, the author highlights how frivolousness may arise both from the absence of factual bases and from the legal inconsistency of the claims, while distinguishing it from the legitimate advancement of minority legal arguments supported by robust systematic reasoning. The contribution underscores how the Italian Court of Cassation has expanded the operative scope of the lawyer’s duty of dissuasion, linking it to the principles of procedural fairness, efficiency, and the protection of due process. The comparison with the United States legal system reveals a more stringent approach, oriented toward the direct accountability of the lawyer, who may be sanctioned for abusive, dilatory, or truth-contravening litigation conduct. By contrast, in the Italian system sanctions primarily affect the client, leaving professional ethics and civil liability to play only a limited role in curbing reckless or abusive behavior by counsel. The author thus argues for the need to strengthen san ctioning and regulatory tools directed at lawyers, so that they may effectively fulfil their social and preventive function in relation to the abuse of process. The potential contribution of predictive artificial intelligence systems is also discussed, particularly their capacity to assess in advance the merits of disputes and to encourage more responsible and transparent defensive strategies.