A as lawyers in lawsuits in the (Superior Court of Justice) causes discomfort between the members of the Court itself and also among members of some of the country’s main law stalls.
The complaint was made reserved for the Sheetin recent months, by four STJ ministers and several lawyers, who complain above all that action is not only formally done in the case file, but also outside them.
Within the court, the greatest dissatisfaction is with acting outside the case. In these cases, lawyers’ names do not appear directly linked to the causes, which limits any declarations of impediment or suspicion by ministers who are related to them.
Sought by Sheetthe STJ and the CNJ (National Council of Justice) did not respond.
According to the law, a magistrate is prevented from judging cases in which he himself (if he was a lawyer or member of the prosecutor in the past), his spouse or a relative have acted.
The suspicion is more subjective. The magistrate must declare himself suspicious whether, for example, he is a close friend or enemy capital of one of the parties, or creditor or debtor of one of them.
A STJ minister said, under reserve, that the problems related to the performance of relatives got worse after a law sanctioned in 2022 by the then president (PL), which deals with private lawyers.
This law has changed the Code of Civil Procedure and provides that consulting and legal advice activities “may be performed verbally or in writing, at the discretion of the lawyer and client, and are independent of granting mandate or formalization by fee contract.”
With this, lawyers make private contracts with the parties and do not come with power of attorney in the file. Often, neither the opposing parties nor the ministers themselves know that these people are participating in the process.
In 2016, a survey of Sheet showed they had relatives advocated at the court.
UOL report pointed out that half of the STJ ministers have children or relatives formally advocated, with power of attorney, in nearly 1,000 cases in court.
In addition to the ministers who currently make up the board, there are also cases in which relatives of retired ministers of the Court and members of the (Supreme Court) participate.
Between members and people who work at the STJ, these lawyers are called “princes”, in a joking way.
Lawyers complain that these relatives have privileges because they participate in private meetings of ministers, including meetings with members of other powers, as well as access to other reserved spaces.
There is also a complaint, among the large offices, about pressure for them to act together with relatives of ministers in causes in court.
Members of the large stalls say that the parties often believe they will only get access to ministers if they make one of these hires. Perception helps to increase the number of causes touched by these relatives of magistrates.
Some court disputes involve acting on different sides of relatives of STJ and Supreme Ministers. Hiring occurs in the main billionaire processes that are being processed in the upper court.
One example is the conflict between financial managers and Walter Faria, owner of, the Itaipava and Petra beers, who has mobilized in recent years at least ten relatives of members of the Brazilian judiciary who act as lawyers.
Other billionaire actions also have or participated relatives of STF or STJ ministers. This is the case of the dispute for, which, after years of dispute, ended in an agreement in late May.
This is the case still of the stock dispute for and the Ternium.
In state and federal courts, it is common for judges to have children with law firms. In some situations, the newsstands have become the target of courts for sales of court decisions.
This is the case of the operation that aimed, in 2023, the federal judge Cândido Ribeiro, TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, based in Brasilia), and his son for a criminal organization that, according to PF, acts on international drug trafficking, money laundering and financial crimes.
Ribeiro retired after the operation and did not comment on the suspicions at the time.
This is also the case of the Bahia Court of Justice. During the investigations, a judge’s son even signed an award -winning plea agreement with his mother. Both were investigated. The deal is over.
The children of the magistrates are also some of the main targets of the operations that Mirame do.
These last three cases are under the supervision of the STF minister because they are related to investigations related to the sale of decisions and the leakage of confidential information in STJ offices.
So far, only employees and former STJ employees are investigated, as well as lobbyists and lawyers who are not related to the ministers.
