The new Electronic Judicial Domicile

The National Justice Council (CNJ), in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with support from the Federal Justice Council (CJF), Superior Court of Justice (STJ), Superior Labor Court (TST) and Superior Labor Justice Council (CSJT), developed the Justice 4.0 Program. The National Federation of Banks (Febraban) participated in the development of the DJE.

Este Program its objective is to promote the digital transformation of the Judiciary and to guarantee greater agility, efficiency and accessibility to its services, since anyone, anywhere, can have access to justice, without having to spend time and money on travel, for example.

The Electronic Judicial Domicile (DJE) is part of this Program and, although Resolution No. 234/2016 of the CNJ established it, it was only in the year 2022, through Resolution No. 455/2022, also of the CNJ, that the said tool became regulated and constituted as the platform for public notices of the CNJ and an instrument for publishing the judicial acts of the bodies of the Judiciary.

But is this accessibility and proximity of society to the Judiciary possible?

According to the FGVcia Annual Survey Regarding the Brazilian IT Market and Business Use, the number of electronic devices¹ active in Brazil is 480 million as of May/2024, both for corporate use and for personal use, which gives an average of 2.2 digital devices per inhabitant, smartphone the most used.

In parallel with this, research conducted in 2022 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), points out that 161.6 million Brazilians used the internet (although Brazil had a population of 215.3 million in 2022, the survey interviewed only inhabitants over 10 years old), and of that number, 93.4% accessed the network every day, while another 2.7% connected almost every day (five or six days a week).

This number increased and, in 2024, according to data released by DataReportal², among the 217 million Brazilians, 96.9% of them use mobile devices (210.3 million) and 86.6% access Internet.

Thus, the number of people with access to various electronic devices and to Internet, which is why, having a smartphone and access to Internet it is possible that not only lawyers, but also the Brazilian population, may have access to justice in an easier and less expensive way, given the unnecessary need to go to the forum or call the lawyer to find out about the progress of the process, for example.

The communication tool

The DJE, the result of the Justice 4.0 Program, is a free tool that concentrates in one place all procedural communications³ issued by ninety-one courts in the country, replacing physical communications and/or the movement of bailiffs.

Any individual, whether individual or legal entity, can have access to the tool and be aware of any communications that may be constant.

Access to tool It's simple and can be done through any browser of Internet, through a login and password, digital certificate or through gov.br. So far, there is no DJE app for Download us smartphones, which would further facilitate access to justice by the Brazilian population.

The tool has very intuitive panels, without having to click on many fields to access procedural communications.

Resolution no. 455/2022, of the CNJ, in its articles 11 and 12, emphasizes that publication in the DJE replaces”any other means of official publication, for subpoena purposes, except in cases where the law requires a personal consultation or subpoena” and the current electronic justice journals maintained by the Judiciary, so that they will be published in the DJE:

• Contents of the orders, the decisions, the provisions of the judgments, and the menus of the judgments;
• Subpoenas to lawyers in electronic judicial process (PJE) systems, whose knowledge does not require a personal visa or subpoena;
• Process distribution list;
• Acts intended for the CNJ public notice platform; and
• Other acts, whose publication is provided for in the procedural law, in the internal regulations and in the regulatory provisions of the courts and councils.

According to the data provided by the CNJ, by 14/02/2024, 38 (thirty-eight) Brazilian courts have adapted their procedural systems and started sending communications through the DJE, namely: State Justice (TJAP, TJBA, TJDFT, TJCE, TJGO, TJMT, TJPA, TJPB, TJPR, TJRJ, TJRS, TJRR and TJSE); Federal Justice (TRF 4) and Labor Justice (TRT 1, TRT 2, TRT 3, TRT 4, TRT 5, TRT 6, TRT 7, TRT 8, TRT 9, TRT 10, TRT 11, TRT 12, TRT 13, TRT 14, TRT 15, TRT 16, TRT 17, TRT 18, TRT 19, TRT 20, TRT 21, TRT 22, TRT 23 and TRT 24).

Mandatory and optional registrations

The registration of users took place in a phased manner since 2023, with the first phase (from February to August 2023) aimed at financial institutions and the second phase (starting from March 2024 - a period of 90 days) for private legal entities. After May 30, private companies were registered on a compulsory basis, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service.

Resolution no. 455/2022 of the CNPJ states which people must join or register on a mandatory basis, as well as those who have the right to register, namely:

Mandatory membership: all Brazilian courts must implement the system (except Supreme Federal Court - STF).

Mandatory registration (the following institutions must use the system to receive and monitor process communications):

• Federal Government, States, Federal District and municipalities;
• Indirect Management Entities;
• Public companies; and
• Private companies (per CNPJ).

Optional registration (however, encouraged by the CNJ):

• Small and microenterprises that have an electronic address in the integrated system of the National Network for the Simplification of the Registration and Legalization of Companies and Businesses (Redesim); and
• Individuals.

The data needed to register are simple: CPF or CNPJ; and emailing to receive the information.

For individuals, where registration is optional (at least so far), there are advantages to registering with the DJE, since they can be notified through their mails personal communications of any processes that are part, whether of the active or passive pole of demand.

Plurality of users and permissions

An important point of the tool is that it provides different access permissions for different user profiles.

After registration by the company and the legal representative, it will be possible to link the branches and affiliates as well as to register the individuals who will perform the following roles:

• Administrator (has access to all features);
• Registration manager (access to procedural communications and management of the register of defendants); and
• Responsibility (access to procedural communications).
• After registering the representative, the company must select in the field “scope of access”, to which CNPJs the representative may have access and whether the full content of the communications can be viewed.

Careful registration is of paramount importance, since people who are registered with the tool in some of the papers mentioned above will have: (i) the responsibility to access the DJE, to promptly become aware of the communications and to inform in a timely manner the areas and offices that will be responsible for the case; and (ii) access to more detailed information about the processes, of the parties involved, even in the case of lawsuits that are under secrecy and that may be more sensitive for the company.

The company's lawyer may, for example, be registered as a defendant. If, during the course of the process, the company terminates the partnership with the claimant, as soon as the change is made to the process, the court will inactivate the representative and include the new appointee. This update will be notified by the court in the DJE and the procedural communications will now be distributed and accessed only by those who have permission to do so.

This communication between the Court and the DJE platform is essential, since, in this way, the company will not be harmed by a possible loss of deadline, due to the change of employers reported in the case file.

Consequence of not registering

Failure to register by the mandatory institutions mentioned in the previous topic may result in the loss of procedural deadlines and a consequent delay in the processes.

This is because Resolution No. 455/2022 changed the deadlines for reading and informing communications. Now, the subpoena deadline is 3 (three) business days after subpoenas are submitted by the courts and 10 (ten) calendar days for subpoenas.

Anyone who, without just cause, fails to promptly confirm the receipt of a summons sent via DJE, will be subject to a fine of up to 5% (five percent) of the amount of the case for an act that violates the dignity of the justice system.

It is extremely important that companies monitor and become aware, within the legal deadline, of all procedural communications entered in the DJE. Otherwise, for example, in a lawsuit whose lawsuit amount is R$ 2,000,000.00 (two million reais), they may be ordered to pay a fine of up to R$ 100,000.00 (one hundred thousand reais).

In this sense, it is reinforced by the assistant judge of the Presidency of the CNJ and technical mentor of the project, Adriano da Silva Araújo:

”An important warning is that, of the total number of compulsorily registered companies, more than 200,000 do not have an e-mail registered in the IRS database and will not receive notifications by e-mail with each procedural communication issued by the system. It is worth remembering that those who fail to confirm the receipt of a summons sent to the Domicile within the legal deadline and do not justify the absence will be subject to a fine of up to 5% of the amount of the case for an act that violates the dignity of the justice system.” Are you

Thus, once again, we can see the importance and care that the company must take when appointing the administrator, registration manager, and representatives of the tool.

In addition, for those companies that missed the registration deadline and were compulsorily registered based on data from the Federal Revenue Service, it is essential to check and update their registration data, otherwise they may be considered to be reversed in proceedings and/or miss legal deadlines.

Debates about the tool

Some questions related to the DJE, such as the possibility of applying procedural penalties due to the absence of confirmation of the summons and the counting of the procedural deadlines, have already been considered.

In fact, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the CNJ, complied with the request of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and determined, through Ordinance No. 224 of 26/06/2024, the suspension of the compulsory registration period for medium and large companies in the DJE until the system was modified to create a bar for opening subpoenas when there are already registered lawyers in the file.

This is because the DJE was allowing companies to open a subpoena, even in lawsuits with a constituted attorney and there had been an express request in the file for subpoenas to be carried out exclusively in the name of a particular lawyer, which ends up creating enormous insecurity for the parties involved in the proceedings and disrespect for the dictates contained in the Code of Civil Procedure.

This problem has already been corrected, which is why Ordinance No. 224/2024 was repealed by Ordinance No. 243 of 31/07/2024 on the grounds that the DJE performs”the opening bar for the start of the deadline counting by the party when there are lawyers registered in the case file, ensuring greater legal certainty and compliance with the rights of lawyers and the parties involved.”.

Another point of debate is the absence of standardization among the courts, since some still send communications by letter or through publications in official journals.

Conclusion

The modernization of the Brazilian judicial system, with the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence, has been increasingly seen, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, since, from day to night, hearings and trials had to be adapted so that the processes were not affected by an enormous slowdown, given the impossibility of carrying out face-to-face work for various sectors.

Courts began to hold virtual hearings and judgments, to serve parties and lawyers virtually through the virtual counter (also the advent of the Justice 4.0 Program), so that there was no interruption of the Judiciary in this difficult period, but only the suspension of procedural deadlines so that the entire population could adapt to the changes in their daily lives due to the pandemic.

The result of this necessary movement during COVID-19 had a very positive and significant balance, considering that during this period, the Judiciary handed down 40.5 million judgments and judgments, and 59.5 million court decisions against 32 million judgments and terminative decisions in high school in the year 2019.

This modernization did not stop, and in order to obtain (i) better management of procedural communications (a single place to monitor all communications from the different courts in the country); (ii) faster processes (communications take about two weeks to reach the recipient); (iii) greater efficiency of the judicial process, with a 90% reduction in the costs of sending physical communications carried out by the bailiffs or the Postal Service; and (iv) a better and efficient service for all people, the DJE went off the ground and was made available to all Brazilian courts, the Federal Government, States, Federal Districts and Municipalities, Indirect Administration entities, public and private companies, and even to individuals (if they want to register).

To access the tool, companies must correctly register their users and pay attention to the communications in the system, under penalty of losing the procedural deadline and the imposition of a fine for an act that violates the dignity of justice.

It is undeniable that the DJE has several advantages, especially the concentration of all communications in one place. However, due to the fact that the tool is new, some adjustments and adaptations will still be necessary both by developers and users. This innovation of the CNJ, as was also the advent of the electronic process, is a major advance in the Brazilian courts, facilitating not only the work of lawyers, but also guaranteeing greater speed and legal certainty in the control of deadlines and accessibility to the population.

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¹ The research considered computers, tablets, and smartphones as electronic devices.

² DataReportal is one of the great references in internet research. In 2024, it launched the Digital 2024: Global Overview Report and Digital 2024: Brazil, which consist of reports prepared through partnerships with important institutions such as Statista, Similarweb, data.ai, Semrush, GWI and SocialInsider. The reports reveal information about the current state of web on a global and national basis.

³ The CNJ understands and clarifies what procedural communications:

”It is information sent by the courts and is part of a judicial process. The most common forms are subpoena and subpoena.

- Citation: it is the communication made to inform the defendant, defendant, or interested party that there is an ongoing process.

- Subpoena: it is the notification issued by the court calling on the party or parties to do or stop doing something. It also means giving notice of acts or terms of the process.

- Notification: sending any information regarding a procedural act to which the party must attend.”

4 Art. 246, §§ 1-A to 1º-C, of the CPC:

Ҥ 1-A The absence of confirmation, within 3 (three) business days from the receipt of the electronic citation, will entail the issuance of the citation:

I - by mail;

II - by bailiff;

III - by the notary or chief of the secretariat, if the summoner appears at a registry office;

IV - by notice.

§ 1-B At the first opportunity to speak in the file, the defendant summoned in the forms provided for in items I, II, III and IV of paragraph 1-A of this article must present just cause for the absence of confirmation of receipt of the summons sent electronically.

§ 1º-C An act of undermining the dignity of justice, subject to a fine of up to 5% (five percent) of the amount of the case, fails to confirm the receipt of the summons received by electronic means within the legal deadline, without just cause.”

¹ Available in: https://www.cnj.jus.br/cnj-inicia-cadastro-compulsorio-de-grandes-e-medias-empresas-no-domicilio-judicial-eletronico/ 

6”Art. 272. When not made electronically, subpoenas are considered to have been made for the publication of the acts in the official body.

(...)

§ 2 Under penalty of nullity, it is essential that the publication contain the names of the parties and their lawyers, with their respective registration number with the Brazilian Bar Association, or, if so requested, of the law firm.

(...)

Paragraph 5 If the file contains an express request that the communications of the procedural acts be made in the name of the appointed lawyers, their failure to comply will imply nullity.”

² See benefits of the system in link: https://www.cnj.jus.br/tecnologia-da-informacao-e-comunicacao/justica-4-0/domicilio-judicial-eletronico/. Accessed on 13/08/2024.