CNJ to launch online platform for disputes related to Covid-19

The National Council of Justice (CNJ), in partnership with the private sector, intends to offer all courts, within 30 to 40 days, a new platform for conducting conciliation and mediation sessions. The tool will be entirely online and will initially serve to resolve the expected large volume of conflicts related to COVID-19.

The intention is to avoid overloading the Judiciary once things return to normal – for now, only urgent matters are being handled. The airline sector alone, for example, anticipates a 200% increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.

"This is a time for development, execution, and implementation all at once. The urgency demands it," says Councilor Henrique Ávila, president of the CNJ's Access to Justice Commission, who is leading the project.

The CNJ has relied on support from the private sector to get the project off the ground in such a short time. According to Ávila, the new platform is being developed by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and will be financed by major companies in the country.

Meetings have been held since last month with representatives from at least 20 companies in the airline, energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and banking sectors – which account for a significant number of lawsuits. Associations and federations representing these companies have also been participating.

“It’s advantageous for everyone to have a platform where they can, in some way, have the opportunity to capture that customer before a dispute begins in court,” says Bruno Bartijotto, legal director of Latam in Brazil, one of the companies involved in the project.

According to Bartijotto, of the lawsuits currently in progress, 35% were filed without the clients having previously contacted the company to try to resolve the problem. "The opportunity to reach a settlement is a chance, then, to explain or definitively compensate the client if the service was not provided adequately," he says.

Latam's backlog of lawsuits in Brazil represents 98.5% of all consumer lawsuits the company has worldwide. Last year there were almost 50,000, which translates to more than 4,000 new cases per month. "This level of litigation is unparalleled. There is nothing like Brazil in the world," emphasizes the legal director.

Energisa, which controls electricity distributors in 11 states across the country, is also among the companies in contact with the CNJ (National Council of Justice). "Online mediation aligns with our vision," says Fernanda Rocha Campos Pogliese, the company's legal director.

She states that Energisa participates in mediation and conciliation sessions in all the states where it operates and emphasizes that consensual methods "strengthen the relationship with consumers, expedite results, and reduce costs."

Henrique Ávila, a member of the CNJ (National Council of Justice), says that FGV (Getúlio Vargas Foundation) will remain involved in the project for a period of two years – after which the Council's own technology team will take over. He states that this is because the system's implementation will occur in phases.

The platform will initially focus on cases related to COVID-19, then on other cases, and, in a third phase, will also address collective actions. "It's impossible to implement everything at once in such a short time," Ávila points out.

According to the advisor, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) should issue a regulatory act to guide judges to use some of the alternative means to litigation – the new platform or the Judicial Center for Conflict Resolution and Citizenship (Cejusc), for example – before proceeding with the cases.

This recommendation is already enshrined in law. The Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), which came into force in 2016, establishes in article 334 that "if the initial petition meets the essential requirements and the case is not one of summary dismissal of the claim, the judge shall schedule a conciliation or mediation hearing." Lawyers state, however, that this provision is not always followed – especially because not all judicial districts have sufficient infrastructure to meet the demand.

The new CNJ platform will allow ongoing cases to also be referred for mediation and conciliation. The request to refer the case can be made by the parties or ordered by the judge.

In either situation – whether at the beginning or middle of the process – if the parties do not reach an agreement, the action will follow its normal course. “We are not closing the doors of the Judiciary. We are offering a way out for society,” says Henrique Ávila. “There are many cases in the Judiciary that don't need to be. It's a lack of dialogue.”

The resolution of conflicts online, as will occur on the new platform, gained momentum during the period of social isolation. Judges have been conducting hearings via the internet, and both the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) have expanded the circumstances under which virtual trials are permitted, in addition to holding sessions via videoconference.

Recently, on April 27th, an amendment to the Law of Special Courts (No. 9,099 of 1995) was published in the Official Gazette – which handles a large volume of consumer lawsuits against companies. One of the changes provides for conciliation hearings to be held via videoconference.

According to the new Law, No. 13.994, the judge may issue a ruling if the defendant fails to appear at the virtual session or refuses to participate in the conciliation attempt.

“The pandemic situation brought forward somewhat what we already expected might happen. There’s no fighting technology,” says lawyer Gustavo Albuquerque, a specialist in consumer law and partner at the Gondin Albuquerque Negreiros law firm.

The special courts handle a large volume of cases and hold a huge number of hearings daily throughout the country, adds the lawyer. “Technology, when it can actually be made to work, can be a great benefit to the parties involved. But of course, caution is needed, guaranteeing the rights of lawyers and the right of the parties to speak.”

Source: Economic Value