P7M files in Italian court filings

In a law office, .p7m files arrive every day: opposing filings notified by PEC (Italian certified email), orders downloaded from the registers, powers of attorney signed by the client, attachments a colleague must read before the hearing. Reading them quickly is useful. Swapping the reading copy for the original you must file is not. This guide is an office method. It does not replace the technical specifications of the Italian electronic civil process. Those remain the text to consult on the Ministry of Justice telematic services portal before a filing.

Two formats, two tools

The process rules admit, in the cases they provide, both CAdES signatures, hence .p7m files, and PAdES signatures, hence PDFs with an inner signature. The office receives both. The reader on this site opens CAdES envelopes. It does not verify a PAdES signature uploaded as a plain PDF. If an order is a PDF with a signature panel, read it in a PDF reader and do not force it into the envelope reader. The difference is explained in CAdES and PAdES.

Before a filing, check the current specifications for formats, extensions and requirements of the document you are about to send. Last year’s habit is not a source.

Read a notified filing

When the PEC message contains comparsa.pdf.p7m:

1. Save the attachment from the original message, not daticert.xml and not smime.p7s. The method is in P7M attachments in PEC.
2. Copy it into the matter folder, in the originals subfolder, with date, party and document type in the name, without altering the extension.
3. Open it in Lettore P7M. Extraction stays on the office computer.
4. Check that the signer matches the lawyer named and that integrity is not a negative result.
5. Read revocation as its own result. If it is unavailable, note that. Do not turn it into “signature in order”.

The free preview is enough for this reading. A license is needed if the office exports the PDF for a colleague or for the client. Plans are on Pricing. The exported copy goes in a reading folder, with a suffix that stops anyone uploading it by mistake in place of the envelope.

Powers of attorney and several lawyers

On a power of attorney signed by the client, check three things, in order.

• The certificate subject matches the client, not a relative or a colleague who used their own device.
• The text in the preview is the agreed power of attorney, not a draft left in the same folder.
• The certificate result is understood. A certificate that is expired today does not, on its own, say the signature was invalid on the day it appears to have been applied. The reader marks revocation as earlier than the signature only when verified time evidence is later than the revocation. A claimed date is not enough. The messages are in Expired or revoked signature.

If the filing is signed by several lawyers, the file may be named .p7m.p7m or it may contain several signatures in the same envelope. Look at the full list of signers. Nested layers stay separate. Countersignatures are not verified. If the tool shows a single signer, do not assume the others do not exist. Open the inner layer the reader indicates.

What not to do with the copy

The extracted PDF is a reading copy. It does not contain the CAdES signature. Do not file it in place of the original. Do not use it for a notice that requires the signed file. Do not rename it .p7m to “put the signature back”. The extension does not rebuild the envelope.

Certificates of conformity, when the law requires them, are a separate act. The reader does not generate them and does not sign them. It also does not produce a filing log, a case number or a telematic receipt.

For tenders and documents to upload on platforms other than the court process, the preliminary check is similar but the source of the rules is the tender documentation. See P7M files in public tenders.

A minimum flow for the office

1. Whoever receives the PEC message immediately saves the original in the matter folder.
2. They open the .p7m in the reader and note signer, integrity result and revocation result, including “unavailable”.
3. Only afterwards, if needed, they export a reading copy for the person who must study the filing.
4. Whoever files uses the originals folder and that day’s specifications, not the reading folder.

This order keeps reading separate from forming the filing. The reader does not enter the drafting tool and does not connect to the register. It is a local check before, or after, those steps.

On matter data, judge with the data protection lead where files are opened. Avoid services that ask you to upload the filing to a conversion server. Do not send filings to reader support.

The morning of the notices

At 09:00 the office has three PEC messages. The first contains comparsa_controparte.pdf.p7m. Save it in fascicolo/originali as 2026-10-23_comparsa_controparte.pdf.p7m. In the reader the preview shows 12 pages and one signer. Note “integrity confirmed, revocation unavailable” if the office network does not complete the check, and repeat revocation later. Do not write “all clear” in place of a missing result.

The second PEC message shows only smime.p7s. It is not empty until you have opened postacert.eml. The filing is often there. The third contains verbale.pdf with a PAdES signature. Do not pass it to the envelope reader. Open it in a PDF reader and archive it as a signed PDF, on a different line of the office register.

At 11:00 a client sends procura.pdf.p7m.p7m. In the reader, compare the two layers. Your certificate and the client’s must both appear, on separate layers. If you see a single signer, do not file and do not “complete” the set by pasting another PDF. Ask for the missing file. The reading copy for the domicile lawyer, if you export it, goes in fascicolo/lettura and not in the folder from which filing starts.

This round does not connect the reader to the court portal and it does not create a receipt. It leaves you a file in which the original, the result and the copy do not swap places while someone prepares the hearing. If a colleague works from home, point them to the originals folder and not to the PDF alone. The reader cache does not carry the filings opened at the office.

Frequently asked questions

Does the reader file the document in the electronic court system?

No. The reader opens and checks the file on your device. Filing stays in the tools, and under the rules, of the electronic court process.

Can I file the PDF extracted from the P7M?

The extracted PDF does not contain the CAdES envelope. Filing needs the signed originals in the format required by the specifications for that document.

Does the reader replace the check used for filing?

No. It shows integrity, the certificate, the available chain and revocation, with the limits shown on screen. It is not a qualified validation and it does not produce a procedural certificate.

How should .p7m.p7m envelopes be read?

The layers stay separate and each signer should be checked. Countersignatures are marked as unverified. They are not merged into one signed PDF.

Before the hearing

Read the filing in the reader, note the results and leave the original where the filing step can find it. If the file will not open, separate a wrong PEC attachment from an incomplete envelope with A P7M file will not open. The PDF copy, when you generate it, remains a reading tool, as explained in Extract a PDF from a P7M.