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Legal protection · 02

Consent that is missing, or generic.

For the Court of Cassation, choosing is a right distinct from the right to health. Someone who was not informed can claim damages even if the treatment succeeded, but must prove the consequences.

Information, not legal advice. Read on 12 October 2026.

Missing or generic consent

The rule

1 of 2

Court of Cassation, Civil Division, Third Section, judgment 28985 of 2019

In the Court's official report: "the breach of the duty to inform is conduct unlawful in itself, as it infringes the person's right to self-determination", but its proof "is not, however, sufficient in itself to discharge the burden of proving the facts constituting the claim for damages".

Read the textCorte di cassazione, Ufficio del Massimario

Missing or generic consent

The precedents

Published on the FNOMCeO portal on 17 April 2019

Court of Cassation, Civil Division, Third Section, judgment 10423 of 2019

The facts
The patient had been informed only of the need to remove a cyst on the spleen. The whole spleen was removed, with complications.
What was decided
Judgment quashed and remitted on the claim for damage from infringement of self-determination. For the Court, that damage is compensable even when the procedure appeared necessary beforehand and turned out to be decisive afterwards.
Read the textText on the FNOMCeO portal

Missing or generic consent

What protects the physician

  • Written proof that the information was given, and of what it covered.
  • A consent with a date and a version, that cannot be edited afterwards.
  • A concrete form, written for that treatment: one sheet for everything is the weak point.

In Fibonacci

  • Every consent carries a date, time and author, and stays as it was signed.
  • Whoever generated it, reviewed it and had it signed stays in the access log.
  • A session recorded without a signed consent stays flagged as such: the data does not hide.

Missing or generic consent

What these sources do not say

These judgments do not say that the patient wins even without a technical error. They say that the right to choose is autonomous and that the damage must be pleaded and proved. We have not found in an institutional text the much-repeated sentence that it is always up to the doctor to prove that he informed the patient.

Documentation must be done while you work, not when the lawyer's letter arrives.

In half an hour we show you how Fibonacci records consents, sessions, batches, and photos during the visit.

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