Author: Ana Conceição

Source: VEJA On-line - São Paulo / SP - 07/12/2009

São Paulo - The president of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Minister Gilmar Mendes, predicts that the number of cases closed through the joint efforts of Justice this year will exceed that of 2008, when 1 million agreements were closed, totaling R $ 1 billion. Although expressive, the numbers do not relieve the burden of millions of lawsuits stopped in court across the country, waiting for a decision.

“There are many cases that could be resolved before going to court. There are too many lawsuits against the Labor Court, against the government in general. The model needs to be modified and it will not be just a conciliation week that will solve the problem ”, acknowledged the minister in São Paulo, during the opening of the National Conciliation Week, which runs until Friday. "But reconciliation is important to handle part of that burden."
According to data from the CNJ, of the more than 48 million cases that accumulated in 2006 and 2007 in the first instance of the Federal Court, the Labor Court and the State Courts, only 11,3 million were judged definitively in the same period. The rest continued to await sentencing or rose to the second level. In 2008, about 70 million cases were processed by the Brazilian courts, of which 30 million were closed.

In addition to the slowness, there are serious administrative failures. Last year, for example, 5 million lawsuits were closed because they had already been resolved, but had not been reduced by judicial bureaucracy.

At the beginning of this year, the CNJ established the so-called “goal 2”, whereby all the processes that were brought before the Court until December 2005 must be judged by the end of this year. Half of the country's 91 courts managed to achieve the goal. At least 4,4 million cases are still awaiting trial.

In the State of São Paulo, it is estimated that 70 cases will be closed during the National Conciliation Week. The Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region, the Regional Labor Court of the 2nd Region and the Court of Justice participate. The expected 12,5 hearings will be held at the Memorial da América Latina.

This is the fourth week of conciliation promoted by the CNJ. The first, in 2006, had around 84 thousand hearings held in the country, with 46,5 thousand agreements (55%). In 2007, there were 227,5 thousand hearings, with 96,5 thousand agreements (42,4%) and, in 2008, 305,6 thousand hearings, with 135,3 thousand agreements (44,3%). The total estimate for 2009 has not been released.

In state courts, many disputes deal with issues related to the Consumer Protection Code and purchase and sale contracts. In the Federal Court, most of the cases deal with pending matters relating to housing contracts between home buyers and Caixa and issues related to pensions and pensions.

The average number of agreements that the Federal Court has registered in hearings to reconcile cases in the Housing Finance System is around 70%. In the social security area, the average of agreements varies between 35% and 45% of the cases submitted to the conciliation mechanism.