BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Cassio Namur and Roberta Toledo, Tortoro, Madureira & Ragazzi Advogados
1.2 Choice of Jurisdiction Access to the judiciary for filing divorce pro - ceedings is immediate in Brazil because there is no requirement for prior attempts at consen - sual agreement, such as conciliation and private mediation. All that is required is for the interested party to take legal action. Judicial measures can be preparatory and of an urgent nature, in order to avoid the loss of rights of the interested party, and can involve the collection and blocking of assets, the establishment of provisional mainte - nance for the children and former partner, pro - visional custody and regulation of cohabitation. Measures of an urgent nature are followed by final requests for divorce and sharing, mainte - nance, custody and cohabitation of children. The rules are identical for heterosexual and same- sex marriages and also apply to the procedures for the dissolution of a stable union. Domicile and Residence The concepts of domicile and residence are rel - evant to the definition of jurisdiction. The residence is where the person regularly stays and, therefore, there may be several residenc - es. The domicile is the place where the person establishes their permanent residence, so the residence and domicile can be the same place. The domicile is unique and can be considered to be where the person regularly carries out their professional activities. The domicile, regardless of residence, may be expressly established in contracts, pacts and/or terms. If a person lives in several residences, and has not formally fixed their domicile, any one of the residences may be considered as the domicile. In the event of not having a habitual residence, the domicile will be considered as the place where the person can be found.
(f) due to the incompetence of the celebrant authority. In both the above-mentioned cases, the requests are processed through a lawsuit before the judi - ciary and aim to dissolve the marriage bond as if it had never existed. The nullity request cannot be subject to a statute of limitations, whereas the annulment request must comply with the following deadline rules for bringing the marriage annulment action (starting from the date of celebration): • 180 days, in the case of item IV of Article 1550 (where the person is incapable of con - senting or unequivocally expressing consent); • two years, if the celebrant authority is incom - petent; • three years, in the cases of items I to III of Article 1557 (where item I concerns the spouse’s identity, honour or good reputation; item II concerns ignorance of a crime prior to the marriage; and item III concerns ignorance, prior to the marriage, of an irremediable physical defect); or • four years, if there is coercion. The right to annul the marriage of minors under 16 years of age is extinguished in 180 days, counting from the day on which the minor reached that age and from the date of the mar - riage, for the minor’s legal representatives or ascendants. In the case of item V of Article 1550, the term for annulment of the marriage is 180 days, starting from the date on which the principal becomes aware of the celebration.
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