The Federal Senate approved, on 17/12/2014, the New Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), being the first code drafted during the democratic regime and that will replace the text of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1973, used for more than forty years.
The draft of the new code was prepared in 2010 by a Committee of legal experts, having been received at the Senate as the legislative bill No.166/2010.
The text, after pending for a short period at the Senate, was sent to the Chamber of Deputies which received at this federal legislative body a substitute text. The text approved by the Chamber of Deputies returned to the Senate, having been finally approved after extensively debated in both Houses for more than five years.
Besides reducing the number of admissible appeals, the new CPC also seeks to ensure the procedural celerity upon extending the fines to punish the use of such instruments only to retard the processes, in strict observance to the Federal Constitution.
The bill also encourages the consensual resolution of disputes, adopting previous stage for dispute resolution attempts between the parties, being worth highlighting the following innovations
- Reduction of the number of admissible appeals.
- Greater effectiveness of the decisions rendered within the ambit of incident of resolution of repetitive lawsuits;
- Possibility of conversion of individual actions into class actions;
- Valorization of the electronic process
- Provision for loss of suit fees for public lawyers under the terms of the law to be enacted;
- Suspension of the procedural time limits between December 20th and January 20th, so that the lawyers be allowed to enjoy their vacation periods;
- Creation of consensual disputes resolution centers that will be responsible for the sessions and pretrial and mediation hearings;
- Reintroduction of the monitory action;
- Prohibition of cash withdrawals or amounts or resolutions relative to seized assets/property during jury duty.
- Possibility of presentation of oral arguments by means of video conference.
- Provision for administrative adverse possession.
As we can see, the new CPC creates tools to assist the Judicial Branch to deal with the existing backlog of cases on the Brazilian courts, seeking the celerity in the resolution of disputes.
The bill approved by the Congress is currently awaiting approval by the Brazilian Presidency, and the new Code will only take effect one year after the bill is signed into law by the President, the period over which time the Judiciary Branch and society can be aligned to the new rules.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
