"It was a traumatic affair, when I was informed of the court decision which denied the legitimate impediment to being present in the courtroom I was in the hospital with my son, I passed out".
This is the story of the lawyer Ilaria Salamadra, 39, to whom the judges of Rome, on April 14, said "no" to the request for legitimate impediment presented because her son had to undergo an examination in day hospital at the Bambino Gesù, in the branch of Palidoro at the thirtieth kilometer of the Aurelia.
"I presented the application on April 12 and it was very detailed and circumstantial - adds the criminal lawyer who also published a video on social media that went viral in a few hours -. Out of scruple and even a little humiliating, I also attached the report of the last surgery carried out, always in day hospital, by my son who is just two years old. I didn't want to leave anything out precisely because I wanted to demonstrate that my goal that day was to be next to my child".
The mother-lawyer was therefore sure that the judges, a collegiate court made up of three women, would implement the request by updating the procedure but this was not the case.
The magistrates rejected the request stating that the child could have been accompanied to the hospital by his father and continued with the hearing as normal.
"An incomprehensible decision - adds Salamandra - which was communicated to me just as I was in the hospital waiting for my son to recover after the examination carried out. I had such an illness that the operators had to take care of me as well as my son", adds the criminal lawyer, also recalling an episode she experienced when she was pregnant.
"I was in my seventh month, it was summer and it was very hot,
I put on sneakers for convenience and was asked if I was actually a lawyer.
'Does she come dressed like this in court?'
the judge told me, but then he acknowledged the mistake and apologized to me". The Bar Association of the Capital intervened on what happened on Friday in Piazzale Clodio, "stigmatizing" the judges' decision. "It is an intolerable episode, we are ready to act in all the appropriate offices - says the President of the Council of the order, Paolo Nesta -.
It is not the first time that an episode of this kind has occurred in the Court of Rome: we recall the case of a colleague who was denied the legitimate impediment on the day of the presumed date of delivery.
Now this new case, which damages not only the dignity and decorum of the legal profession, but the dignity of women: