Special Corporate Law Courts

Anyone who is familiar with the countless police procedurals on television knows that there are specific ways to investigate certain types of crimes. Expertise in a particular field can be crucial for better handling the criminal element that focuses on white-collar or corporate crime for example. However, this idea is not only for the screen. as real courts are doing the same thing.

Officials in Sao Paulo, Brazil, are considering setting up a series of specialized courts that would deal with corporate law and commercial disputes. This is following positive feedback from a move made in 2011 which saw an appellate court to adjudicate commercial disputes. The idea is to speed up the settlement process and ensure proper remedies are prescribed accordingly.

While there is excitement about this move, there is also trepidation from some legal practitioners. One thought is that this would decrease the number of companies going to arbitration and increase the number of lawsuits handled by judges.

However, as most arbitration only takes place under specific circumstances and in sophisticated cases, it is unlikely arbitration would be become redundant. On top of that, others advocate that the possibility of setting precedents would be limited to just a handful of judges that specialized in commercial law.

Although there is some skepticism surrounding this idea in the legal would, the results from the appellate courts that handle commercial disputes show that this move would make precedents more coherent and straightforward. There should be more enthusiasm for the possibility of having specialty courts to handle corporate law in the Brazilian jurisdiction.