In the traditional discipline of tax litigation, defense activities before the commissions were carried out directly by the administration at the three levels of judgement, a legacy of the non-jurisdictional nature of these bodies; the Constitutional Court, however, had held that the Presidential Decree of 26 October 1972 n. 636 did not exclude the patronage of the Lawyer (C. cost., ord. 21 January 1988 n. 48).
Innovating this regime, art. 12, paragraph 4, of Legislative Decree 31 December 1992 n. 546 now provides that state financial offices can be assisted by the State Attorney's Office only in second instance proceedings; also in relation to first instance judgements, however, the Lawyers' Office may be called upon to exercise its consultative functions, or request its patronage from State administrations and other authorized bodies in relation to tax actions of territorial public bodies.