The annual conference of PEOPIL – the Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers, an organisation of lawyers practising in Europe and the rest of the world – including North and South America and Australia – dedicated to protecting victims of personal injury – concluded a few days ago.
The conference took place from 17 to 19 September 2026.
The lawyers from MB.O, together with several other members of Legal Abroad (notably Silina Pavlakis from Greece and Carlos Villacorta from Spain) – a network of which the firm is a founding member – played a leading role during the two-day conference, which marked the return of PEOPIL’s annual event to Italy since 2002.
Together with the President of PEOPIL, Liam Moloney (Ireland), Giulia Oberto, a member of the General Board representing Italy, delivered the opening address, reminding the international participants of the importance of Roman law in legal history.
On the opening day, Marco Bona, attorney, took part in the session on damages arising from baby loss caused primarily by medical negligence; this comparative panel featured contributions from Giacomo Travaglino, former President of the Third Civil Section of the Court of Cassation, Julia Brechtelsbauer (Deka Chambers, England) and Sean Domnick (Rafferty Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa, USA), chaired by Stefano Dangel (Dolce Lauda, Germany).
On Friday afternoon, Mr Bona, who has also been leading the PEOPIL Access to Justice and Full Compensation specialist group for over two decades, chaired the session on liability for damage caused by minors, with speakers Alice Kubů Frýbová (Holubová advokáti, Czech Republic), Christine Schneider (Riess & Schneider Solicitors, Austria), Sylwia Myśliwska (Gostyński & Partners, Poland) and A. Vahit Kaya (Kaya & Partner, Turkey). He also chaired the session on transnational discovery and evidence-gathering tools in relation to the tragic attacks of the 11th of September 2001, in the context of a recent case pending before the US Federal Court, with speaker Andrew J. Maloney III (Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, USA); the panel on the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction in Cross-Border Accident Cases, with Christopher Deacon (Stewarts, England) as the speaker; and the session on the right to protest and police violence in the light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, with Turin-based lawyer Gianluca Vitale (Legal Team Italia) as the speaker.
The second day of the conference was devoted to claims for compensation in defence of human rights, featuring a presentation by the renowned academic Professor Cees van Dam (England), to collective actions and class actions brought against social media platforms to protect the mental and physical health of users at risk of developing addictions and psychological harm (with speakers Duncan Fairgrieve and Stefano Bertone), and finally to the ongoing attacks (tort reform) on victims’ right to access justice and obtain full compensation.
For PEOPIL, access to justice and fair compensation for victims remain issues of paramount importance, around which much discussion has centred, due to reforms across the globe, including in Italy, which aim to limit the protections afforded to victims, including the right to compensation.
The final session on these highly topical issues, moderated by Silina Pavlakis (Pavlakis-Moschos Law Firm and Legal Abroad, Greece), was attended by Marco Bona, in his capacity as Chair of the PEOPIL Access to Justice and Full Compensation SIG, Mike Benner (APIL Chief Executive, England), N. John Bey (AAJ President-Elect, Bey & Associates, LLC, USA), Linda Lipsen (Chief Executive Officer, American Association for Justice, USA) and Liam Moloney (President of PEOPIL, Moloney & Co Solicitors, Co. Kildare, Ireland), thus bringing together the most important international associations of lawyers specialising in personal injury and cross-border justice
During the session, Marco Bona outlined the negative consequences of the use of artificial intelligence systems by lawyers and judges, as both these groups face a serious risk of losing their independence and suffering a marked erosion of their expertise and judgement, as also noted in the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, presented to the UN General Assembly on 16 July 2025.
As highlighted by Marco Bona, today’s tort reform campaigns, promoted by governments and ‘powers that be’, which aim to standardise the justice system and restrict people’s rights—including their right to compensation—are finding increasing support in artificial intelligence systems and in the reliance, on the part of lawyers and judges, on the data and results produced by these new tools, which are far from being neutral and impact-free working tools; therefore, lawyers and judges must retain an in-depth and unmanipulated understanding of the law, the capacity for critical and independent judgement, empathy and, ultimately, the centrality of human reason – all fundamental factors that are at risk in the age of artificial intelligence.
As usual, the PEOPIL annual conference, attended by 170 lawyers, was not only a fruitful opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge but also a chance to catch up with colleagues and old friends from across Europe and beyond.
It is also thanks to events such as these that MB.O remains at the forefront of developments and is able to offer valuable support to victims in cross-border cases.