The recent rulings of the Supreme Court Nos. 32499/2025 and 34748/2025, handed down in the context of widespread litigation brought by lawyers against the Cassa Forense (Lawyers’ Pension Fund), affirmed the ten-year limitation period for the right to obtain a recalculation of pensions. According to the judges, professionals have, from the moment they retire, all the necessary elements to contest the quantification of their pension.
This is an approach that deserves attention and, in our opinion, raises many concerns.
1. The alleged “right to recalculation” and the protection of Article 38 of the Constitution
The orders in question qualify the lawyers’ claim as a “right to pension recalculation”, thus identifying an independent right, which they consider to be subject to limitation. However, such a qualification appears questionable. The legal system does not seem to contemplate a real “right to recalculation”, but rather — and more simply — the right of lawyers to receive their pensions in the correct amount, in accordance with the applicable legal and regulatory parameters.
This right, which is based on Article 38 of the Constitution, is non-transferable and is renewed on a monthly basis, insofar as each monthly pension payment must be “fair”, i.e. in accordance with the laws governing the benefit. It follows that a professional who considers the amount to be incorrect would not request a “recalculation”, but rather the verification of the exact amount of the social security benefit and an order for the institution to pay it.
In light of this approach, the argument of a ten-year limitation period for the “right to recalculation” raises doubts about its compatibility with the constitutional system of social security protection.
2. The systemic implications in long-term relationships
The argument adopted by the Supreme Court, if extended beyond the social security sphere, presents further critical issues.
Applying the same logic to any long-term relationship involving periodic financial benefits would lead to the conclusion – which is difficult to sustain – that the creditor of the benefit, if they have not contested it within ten years of its commencement, could no longer seek judicial protection for future benefits.
Consider, for example, the employment relationship: following the reasoning of the rulings in question, a worker who has not contested the compliance of their remuneration with the parameters of Article 36 of the Constitution within a decade could not subsequently ask the court to ascertain the accuracy of their remuneration or order the payment of the differences accrued within the limits of the limitation period.
Such a consequence appears incompatible with the principles governing long-term relationships, in which the limitation period applies to individual payments but cannot extinguish the right – which is permanent in itself – to receive the correct amount of the payment due.
3. Conclusions
The above considerations lead us to believe that the conclusions reached in Orders Nos. 32499/2025 and 34748/2025 deserve to be reconsidered, both in light of Article 38 of the Constitution and in relation to the general structure of long-term contractual relationships.
We trust that these critical issues in the Supreme Court’s argument will be carefully evaluated by the judges of merit to whom the pending disputes will be submitted, in the hope of reaching an interpretation more consistent with the constitutional and systematic principles governing social security matters.
