The professional liability of healthcare professionals is a decidedly current issue; indeed, in the past decade litigation regarding alleged medical malpractice has increased exponentially in Europe. 1 Substantial changes have occurred in the context of medical liability legislation in Italy with the coming into force of Law no. 189/2012, also known as the ‘Balduzzi Law’. Article 3 of this law states that “the healthcare professional who, in carrying out his/her professional activities, adheres to the guidelines and best practices accredited by the scientific community, cannot be held criminally liable for malpractice, whilst the obligation for compensation, as defined in article 2043 of the Civil Code, persists. The judge shall also take due account of the standard of conduct denoted above when determining eventual compensatory damages”. 2 This article also establishes a special concession system for the liability insurance of medical professionals. The quantification of compensation for biological damages is based on the tables of Articles 138 and 139 of the Insurance Code, whose applicability was originally restricted to compensation for injuries caused by road traffic accidents. Since the emission of the new law, two key issues have