Source: Legal Consultant - SP - 02/09/2009

This Thursday (17/3), Courts of Justice signed an agreement to send cases over the internet to the Superior Court of Justice. With these adhesions, 9 of the 24 courts are part of the Justice in the Virtual Era project, coordinated by the STJ. The virtualization of the processes will allow lawyers and parties to consult the information of interest and petition its causes, having access to the case files 32 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world.

At the same ceremony, there will be the signing of a cooperation agreement between the STJ and the five Federal Regional Courts, with the intervention of Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal, with a view to modernizing the Judiciary and enabling the computerization of the entire Federal Justice. The date coincides with a year in office of the President of the STJ, Minister Cesar Asfor Rocha.

Four TJs (TJ-CE, TJ-PB, TJ-PE and TJ-RJ) and three federal regional offices (TRF 1 st, 2 nd and 5 th regions) already send their processes to the STJ through digital means. With the accession of the 17 courts, 24 of the 32 courts of the second degree Judiciary (27 TJs and 5 TRFs) now send their cases by electronic remittance to the STJ, which represents the 75% adhesion of the second instance of the Brazilian Justice to the project process virtualization.

The courts of justice in Tocantins, Piauí, Paraná, Roraima, Goiás, Sergipe, Rio Grande do Norte, Espírito Santo, Pará, Rondônia, Maranhão, Amapá, Acre, Santa Catarina, sign the accession protocol for Justice in the Virtual Era. Alagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul and Amazonas. Only eight courts (six TJs and two TRFs) will be missing before the STJ will receive 100% of its cases from other courts via electronic means.

President Cesar Asfor Rocha defends the virtualization of judicial processes as a way to speed up the procedural process and, in fact, to combat the problem of delay. With the electronic shipment of processes, the actions arrive faster for distribution to the offices of the STJ. "With the virtualization of the process, we are closing geographic distances from an immense country like Brazil, because now the process arrives electronically, in a matter of seconds", emphasizes the minister. "In view of the motivation of the courts, I am sure that, by the end of the year, 80% of the cases that reach the STJ will be forwarded by electronic means", he adds.

National support

The Justice in the Virtual Era project has the support of the Judiciary in the five regions of the country. The South region, for example, is already preparing to participate in the electronic remittance system with the adhesion of the JWs of Santa Catarina and Paraná. For Judge João Eduardo de Souza Varella, president of the Santa Catarina Court, “the path opened by the STJ and the possibility it gives to all courts to join this network are commendable. Computerization is a path of no return in all areas of society and so it is in the Judiciary. I believe that only technology will bring solutions to old claims. Speed ​​and access are our main interests and that is what the virtualization of Justice should be focused on ”.

According to the judge Carlos Augusto Hoffmann, the TJ of Paraná is already in action. The president of the Paraná court affirms that it is part of the institution's strategic objectives to contribute with initiatives that may constitute a definitive confrontation of the problems of slowness, which are harmful, above all, to the citizens, who are the recipients of the jurisdiction. “Investing in information technologies, which enable the virtual process, is today a responsibility that cannot be omitted by the public manager. The TJPR adheres to the agreement with the STJ and the other courts, certain of the inexorability of the modernization path and of the excellent fruits that the process will allow us to reap ”.

For the president of the Court of Justice of Pará, Judge Rômulo Nunes, the celebration of the agreement for electronic referral of cases to the STJ “must be understood far beyond the extraordinary evolution in the electronic processes that it embodies. Such a breakthrough in technological modernization also symbolizes the new times that the Brazilian Judiciary has been experiencing in recent years, in the use of computer tools for the procedural agility that society demands and the national magistracy has sought ”.

The president of the TJ of Roraima, Judge Almiro Padilha, agrees with his colleague from the same region. “I have no doubt that this initiative by Minister Cesar Rocha will reduce the dead time of the resources sent to the STJ. The bureaucracy in sending the funds is inexplicable. It was time for someone to correct that. ”

According to judge Elisabeth Carvalho Nascimento, president of the TJ of Alagoas, in the Northeast of the country, the STJ's initiative to implement Justice in the Virtual Era “arrived at a good time for the Alagoas Judiciary. In addition to reducing costs for sending processes, there will be greater speed and we will be able to make better use of the physical spaces, since the printed processes will be extinguished. The STJ, the TJAL and everyone who needs the services of Justice wins. This is the reflection of the speedy, humanitarian and accessible Justice that we so long for ”.

From the Midwest region of Brazil, Judge Elpídio Helvécio Chaves Martins, President of the Mato Grosso do Sul Court of Justice, declares the House's support, along with the other courts in the country, “to transform the STJ into the first national court in the world to have all the processes being processed virtually ”. According to the judge, electronic sending “means a major step forward in reducing the time taken to process the case, in addition to bringing great benefits to the environment and also facilitating the life of the court, who will have access to the case files 24 hours a day. day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world ”.

The acting president of the TJ of Espírito Santo (Southeast region), judge Álvaro Bourguignon, points out that the virtual process forwarding “represents an important step in the concreteness of the speed and reasonable duration of the process, saving time, human resources and unnecessary procedures. . The measure has positive aspects in the ecological sphere, with a significant reduction in the use of paper in the judgments of the Superior Court, less spending on fuel, transportation, reduction of pollution, among other positive consequences. The measure signals the total virtualization of the process, a technique that, gradually and prudently, should be adopted as a generic form of materialization of procedural acts ”. With information from the Press Office of the Superior Court of Justice.