Brazilian Civil Procedural Code Update 

The court process can be a long and drawn-out affair. However, there are organizations and legislation out there to try and speed up these proceedings. An example of this is currently happening in Brazil.

This week, an idea conceived in 2009 by a group of jurists headed by Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux was approved by a special committee of the House of Representatives that was created to assess it. Now, a draft of the new Civil Procedural Code (CPC), which aims to expedite proceedings that are related to civil lawsuits, is in play. It will still need to be approved by both houses of Congress before becoming law.

This is not the only change to Brazilian law that has been discussed in recent months. However, this change has been met with more support from judges, lawyers and professors than its predecessors. 

Mario Gelli​, a lawyer for the firm Barbosa, Mussich and Aragão, said that the new legislation would encourage parties involved in a dispute to seek alternative ways to settle it—like conciliation and mediation—instead of appearing in front of the judge and moving to litigation.

The amendment also improves outdated language, like setting clear standards when stipulating attorneys’ fees in cases when the Treasury is convicted.

There is a little resistance as some Brazilian lawyers have advised that this is not going to alter the current substantially of legal disputes. Lawsuits could still take years to settle and improvements need to be made in the education of law students and the technology that is available to notary public.

Regardless, this is a good place to start when it comes to change and can help get a dialogue going to impact further improvements to the penal code.

In less than one month, sentences increase 1,566 percent in Brazilian courts

For more than a month, Brazilian citizens have been protesting government corruption and misspending as preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics are well underway. With the eyes of many on the country, large groups have peacefully and not so peacefully demonstrated against the government. This is going on as the country’s judicial system looks to improve its performance.

According to reports, the Court of Mato Grosso has dramatically improved its ability to close cases. Up through June 25 of this year, the court had only tried six cases of misconduct in 2013.  Since then 88 additional cases have been sentenced, which is an increase of 1,566 percent

This is part of a concentrated effort by the court to improve its standing when it comes to judgments in civil lawsuits and criminal cases against the public administration. In the 20 days since June 25, the Court of Mato Grosso jumped from 19th place to 13th percent, according to the National Council of Justice (CNJ). The target had been to improve just one notch to 18th.

So far this year, cases of corruption involving the Public Administration have increased 13.3 percent in the trials. Criminal cases increased 14.95 percent. They were also able to decrease the backlog of cases that were pending from previous years, from 3,038 down to 1,756.

The court was able to make this massive improvement by adding four more judges to the judicial unit. Cases that involved corruption were also prioritized. Crimes Involving Taxes and the Economy and Crime Against the Public Administration were considered to be decisive in increasing the number of sentences.

Appeal on Process Amendment

The Brazilian Senate has been debating a proposed amendment to the Constitution known as PEC 15. If it is approved, it would transform extraordinary and special appeals—traditionally those involving the federal supreme court—into rescissory actions, as well as, determine that the party filing the appeal proves the general repercussions of the constitutional issues in order for a proper analysis of admissibility takes place.

Now the Senate Committee on Constitution and Justice has approved a request to hold a public hearing about the amendment where citizens, lawyers, and politicians alike can comment and express any concerns.

According to reports, the hearing was proposed by Senator Francisco Dornelles, though it follows a request made by the Bar Association of Brazil (OAB). According to the president of the OAB Marcus Vinicius Furtado, this change may speed up the process of justice but it can not come at the expense of a guarantee of the right to legal defense. 

By holding a public hearing, the Brazilian Bar Association hopes to remove the urgency in analyzing PEC and allow those in charge to take the time to fully understand the proposal before voting on it.  

According to two executives from the OAB, president of the National Council of the Federal Legislation, Francisco Torres Esgaib, and the chairman of the Special Committee on Legislative Monitoring, Eduardo Pugliesi this issue deserves further attention from all involved. This could have far-reaching ramifications for the judicial system and is something all Brazilian lawyers should be aware of.

Music Copyright Bill

Copyright infringement and the distribution of musical works has long been a debate within the artistic community, its governing bodies, and the government. It hit a whole new level in 1999 when online sharing sites like Napster hit the internet and made it easier than ever before for consumers to illegally share and release copyrighted music. Anyone who creates a song or piece of music wants to be fairly reimbursed for their hard work and the use of that work.

In Brazil, there is a new bill making its way through Congress that would set new rules for the collection, storage, and distribution of copyrights for musical works. It aims to give more transparency to the relationship between the entities responsible for collecting the revenue from the copyright, the authors of the works, and the public with regard to the “public performance of musical works, and musical lyrics and phonograms.”

The project was developed based on the public audit of the Central Bureau of Collection and Distribution (ECAD) and contains several amendments. The first establishes the 10th of every month as the deadline for radio, television, and film companies to deliver a completed list of the works that they have used during the previous month. This period is longer than the original version of the bill. Another amendment changes the billing of the users of the works will be proportional to the degree of utilization.

A deeper look at some of the changes

All of this stems from the investigation of ECAD by the senate to examine allegations against the company of wrongdoing. The organization currently holds the collection and distribution royalties on behalf its stable of composers and artists.

According to the Rapporteur, Senator Humberto Costa, the bill was written in a way to try and appease the different interests of everyone involved and get them a fair piece of the pie. ECAD will remain as the sole collecting agency for copyrights but will be under government control possibly as a branch of the Ministry of Culture.There will also be a three year mandate for ECAD leaders who will only be up for one reelection.

The bill creates and promotes access to a cost table for the use of any piece of music. On top of that, all data related to collection and payments, as well as preserving the identity of the artists.

It also changes the pricing structure. The revenue ceiling used to fund the expenses of the ECAD will be lowered from 25 percent to 15 percent. What this means is that should the legislation become law, 85 percent of what is collected by for the use of a particular piece of music will be distributed to the owners if the copyrights, authors of the song, interpreters and any other group that contributed to the piece like the studio musicians. This change will not go into effect overnight as the ECAD will have four years to change the percentage at a rate of 2.5 percent per year.

Penalties for breaking the news laws

There are large sums of money being talked about here. In 2012, the ECAD grosses R$624.6 million ($276.6 million) and paid out R470.2 ($208.3 million). Officials responsible for collecting the revenue from the copyrights acting dishonestly will not only be fired from but suffer civil and criminal sanctions and have their conduct reported.

If this change goes into effect, any musical artist would be wise to partner with Brazilian lawyers to make sure they getting fairly reimbursed for their hard work.