BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Arthur Villamil, Villamil Advogados
6.3 Availability of Injunctive Relief on an Ex Parte Basis While ex parte injunctions are permissible, they are reserved for exceptional cases. The appli- cant must present compelling evidence that immediate relief is necessary to prevent irrepa- rable harm or that any delay would render the relief ineffective. 6.4 Liability for Damages for the Applicant If an applicant obtains an injunction that is later discharged and found to have caused damage to the respondent, the applicant may be held liable for that damage. The respondent can claim compensation if the court determines that the injunction was improperly granted or if the appli- cant acted without sufficient grounds. 6.5 Respondent’s Worldwide Assets and Injunctive Relief Injunctive relief is generally limited to assets within the country. Brazilian courts typically lack jurisdiction to directly affect or seize a respond- ent’s assets located abroad. However, if injunc- tive relief against worldwide assets is essential, Brazilian courts may support the applicant in seeking co-operation from foreign jurisdictions through international judicial co-operation or let- ters rogatory. 6.6 Third Parties and Injunctive Relief While injunctive orders do not directly bind third parties, they are nevertheless obligated to com- ply with court directives. These orders do not typically impose direct liability or obligations on third parties but rather require their co-operation to implement the injunction, as with banks freez- ing accounts or telecom companies restricting access in compliance with the court’s order.
6.7 Consequences of a Respondent’s Non-compliance Non-compliance with an injunction can result in fines and other court-imposed measures to enforce adherence to its terms.
7. Trials and Hearings 7.1 Trial Proceedings
Brazilian civil procedure is primarily written, with oral submissions being admitted as an excep- tion. The process begins with the presentation of the initial petition, which will be assessed by the judge. If there is regularity and the legal and pro- cedural requirements have been met, the judge will order the defendant to be summoned to pre- sent a defence in accordance with the deadlines set for each type of procedure. Once the defence has been presented, the plain- tiff will be summoned to speak out and then the judge must resolve the case, analysing all the preliminary issues and possible causes for the termination of the case, as well as fixing the con- troversial points of the case on which the parties must produce the evidence, if and as granted by the judge. The judge is the director of the process and the recipient of the evidence in a typically inquisito- rial process. Evidence can be documentary, oral or technical. Documentary evidence consists of written documents, photographs, audio and video recordings, among others. Oral evidence may be statements and hearings of the parties, which will always be collected by the judge in a specific hearing for that purpose. It is also pos- sible to produce expert evidence, carried out by a court-appointed expert.
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