12/12/2022
The enforcement of judicial decisions has always been a major challenge for the Brazilian system of justice. It is true that the Courts cannot be held responsible when the creditor does not take the necessary precautions when entering into a contract and granting a credit. Not even when someone becomes a creditor of another by means of a court decision arising from a non-contractual tort (an accident, for example). That is, Courts cannot be held responsible for the absence of assets of a particular debtor.
On the other hand, when a debtor does not fulfill an obligation and the creditor needs help from the courts to see that the credit is satisfied, the system of justice must have effective tools to locate goods and rights with economic expression that can satisfy the credit of that creditor.
On this last point, the system of justice has made great progress in recent times. This is the case of Bacenjud, “a system that connects Justice to the Brazilian Central Bank and financial institutions, to speed up the request for information and the sending of court orders to the National Financial System, by internet.” More recently, Bacenjud evolved into Sisbajud. I.e., “in addition to the electronic submission of blocking orders and requests for basic registration and balance information, already allowed by Bacenjud, the new system will allow requesting detailed information on bank account statements in the format expected by the SIMBA (System of the Federal Public Attorney), and the judges will be able to issue orders requesting from the financial institutions information of the debtors such as: copy of the contracts for opening a bank account and investment account, credit card invoice, exchange contracts, copies of checks, in addition to PIS and of the FGTS. Both bank account values and securities such as fixed income securities and shares can be blocked.” (according to https://www.cnj.jus.br/sistemas/sisbajud/)
Similar tools exist for the location of motor vehicles, as well as deeds and the purchase and sale of real estate before notary offices and notaries throughout Brazil.
Considering this scenario, the National Property Investigation and Asset Recovery System (Sniper) is very welcome. It is “a technological solution developed by the Justice 4.0 Program that streamlines and facilitates property investigation for civil servants, male and female judges of all Brazilian courts integrated into the Digital Platform of the Judiciary Power (PDPJ).” (according to https://www.cnj.jus.br/tecnologia-da-informacao-e-comunicacao/justica-4-0/sniper/)
Thus, based on a request made by a creditor in a lawsuit, the judge of a case may order the presentation of a map that identifies the relationships between individuals and legal entities due to the crossing of data and information from different bases (such as is the case of the Federal Revenue Service, among others).
This new tool deepens the equity research that creditors already do with existing tools, increasing the possibility of creditors having their credit satisfied.
Authored by: Marco Lorencini
