A bill proposing the creation of 400 new federal courts, including courts specialized in dealing with counterfeiting, piracy and money laundering, is on the fast track for approval at the Brazilian Parliament. The Superior Court of Justice approved the bill on August 16 in a plenary session and the court’s president sent the bill to the House of Representatives on August 31. The bill is expected to be approved before the end of the year.
The bill establishes the creation of 50 new federal courts per year over a period of eight years. The Brazilian federal justice system currently comprises 900 courts. In 2004 alone, 2.6 million new actions were filed in these courts, which still had 6.2 million cases pending. The courts only issued 1.7 million decisions in 2004 leaving an average 5,979 actions pending for each judge.
This backlog motivated the creation of new federal courts. The first drafts of the bill proposed the creation of 4,000 new courts, which was unrealistic in view of the resources available. The 400 new courts now proposed will require the hiring of 14,800 persons, including 800 new judges, 3,600 court officers and 4,400 clerks.
One of the bill’s main objectives is to establish federal courts in the countryside and near borders. Another objective is to set up specialized courts to deal with piracy, counterfeiting and money laundering. As these activities are particularly common near borders, setting up federal courts in these areas will represent a step forward in the fight against counterfeiting (for background information on this battle, see Brazil adds two new weapons to anti-piracy arsenal).
The creation of the federal courts in locations where federal justice is not yet present will also attract federal public prosecutors, federal police and the Internal Revenue Service (ie, the tax collection agency) to these locations, thus leading to better intelligence and local coordination of efforts against counterfeiting and other federal crimes such as money laundering, and drug and people trafficking.
For information on the creation of other specialist IP panels within the federal court, see Federal Court of Appeals creates specialized IP panels.
