Court Disposition Time in Brazil and in European Countries

Abstract

The length of judicial proceedings is an important subject on the agenda of social researchers, policy-makers, politicians, legal practitioners, and court administrators in several countries. Whether the court disposition time in a country is reasonable or not is a matter of debate. Brazilian courts are usually perceived to be slow. This study investigates whether court delay is a real problem or merely a perception. The duration of civil cases in Brazil is measured by international standards and then compared to those in European courts. The disposition time in Brazilian first-instance courts takes 600 days, almost three times longer than the European average (232 days). In Brazilian second-instance courts, it takes 320 days, 50% longer than in Europe (215 days). However, the number of cases decided in those courts exceeds the number of new incoming cases, which means that the backlog and the disposition time in Brazilian courts are decreasing. These data are discussed in this paper and a research agenda and management recommendations are proposed later on this document.

Judge's Managerial Competences: a Case Study of a High-Performance Court

“…They further conclude that disposition time "in first-instance European courts consists of 232 days, and in Brazil, it is almost three times higher (632 days)". They also conclude that "in Brazilian second-instance courts (320 days) is almost 50% higher than the European average days)" (Castelliano;Guimaraes, 2023, p. 20-21).…”