“The district has received an alarming number of lawsuits against financial institutions”, says judge from Codajás

Codajás (AM) – The titular judge of the Single Court of the Comarca de Codajás (240 kilometers from Manaus), Geildson de Souza Lima, says that the Justice of the municipality has made several efforts and outlined strategies to meet the growing number of demands against banks. He highlights that the branch has fulfilled the goals of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) every year since he took office. In total, according to the judge, the collection was reduced to just over 2,400 cases.

In an interview given to Em Tempo, the judge also reveals that the greatest achievement of the District was the number of permits issued, higher than the average of other districts of the same size. In addition, an important historical landmark for the city of Codajás is the holding of the jury court session, which had not been held for 20 years. Another important point mentioned by the magistrate was the fight against domestic and family violence against women and also the considerable decrease in crimes against women and sexual crimes. Check out the interview:

In time: How do you face the challenge of leading the municipality of Codajás, in the Paulino Gomes Judge Forum?

Geildson de Souza: Working in the comarca of Codajás has been very rewarding for me. As in other counties in the interior, there are difficulties with regard to servers, the internet and the absence of other important institutions, which means that the magistrate ends up assuming a very prominent role in the social environment. However, it is an easily accessible region, with a recently renovated Forum and a sufficient physical structure, which has contributed to our team meeting the CNJ’s goals every year since I took office.

Our biggest challenge today is the large number of cases that are distributed annually, perhaps the largest distribution of cases in a single court district in the state, but at the same time, it is good to know that so many disputes are being resolved by the judiciary.

ET: The comarca of Codajás has achieved numerous goals that make it one of the most agile, active and, above all, in line with the project idealized by the National Council of Justice, the dedication of the comarca and the servers is observed. Residents are full of praise for the commitment of the region. Do you believe that the prospects for 2023 will be to further reduce the procedural acquis?

Geildson de Souza: When I took over the comarca of Codajás, on January 23, 2019, I received the comarca with more than 3,800 processes, many of them referring to Goal 2 of the CNJ, that is, old processes with more than 3 years of processing. In 2019, we had a major social problem, which was the crisis in the supply of electricity in the region, which caused thousands of lawsuits to be filed against Amazonas Energia. To give you an idea, in 2019 more than 1,700 processes were distributed in the face of Amazonas Energia alone, which meant that in that year there was a distribution of about 3 thousand processes in the district. Since then, the district has received a distribution of around 2,000 cases annually and, even so, today we have reduced our collection to just over 2,400 cases, most of them already sentenced and in the execution phase.

In other words, today the comarca of Codajás has an active collection of cases that are practically equivalent to the number of cases that were distributed only in the year 2022, which demonstrates the efficiency of the court in judging and closing cases. In 2023, our goal is to ensure that the county has an active collection of less than 2,000 cases, which would be a historic feat given the current situation of the Amazonian judiciary, which has been receiving a growing number of cases, especially against institutions financial.

ET: On average, in 2022, how many cases were received and handled by the Comarca de Codajás?

Geildson de Souza: In 2022, the comarca of Codajás received 514 cases in the Special Civil Court; 105 cases in the Special Criminal Court; 280 processes in the Family Court; 4 lawsuits in the Criminal Infancy Court; 8 lawsuits in the Childhood and Youth Civil Court; 419 lawsuits in the Civil Court; 79 processes in the Public Registry Court; 293 in the Common Criminal Court; and 121 cases in the Domestic Violence Court, not to mention the cases distributed on duty and at the Central de Inquiry. That is, more than 1,823 processes were distributed, a smaller distribution than in previous years when I was in charge of the comarca of Codajás. On the other hand, 798 cases were sentenced in the Civil Court; 169 cases in the Special Criminal Court and 1066 cases in the Common Court, totaling 2,033 cases sentenced in the year 2022, which explains the fact that the Comarca de Codajás is decreasing the procedural collection with each passing year. But this was not our greatest achievement in Codajás.

For us, the Comarca’s greatest achievement was the number of permits issued, a number well above the average for other districts of the same size, which demonstrates that the Comarca has managed to effectively fulfill its function and demonstrate effectiveness.

ET: What do you consider to be a milestone or a great evolution for Comarca de Codajás that has been achieved in recent months?

Geildson de Souza: We are improving every year and every day we seek to prioritize specific points of action. Without a doubt, the number of permits issued in the district was an important milestone in evolution, as we prioritized giving effect to judicial decisions, ensuring that people effectively received their rights, and not just that the processes were sentenced. However, I understand that the great evolution took place in the criminal area.

In the year 2022, after facing the problems caused by the pandemic, we were able to carry out legal proceedings in the region after more than 20 years, an event that had great popular engagement and brought Justice closer to the population. This was an important historic milestone for the city of Codajás, which had not held a jury court session for over 20 years.

Another important point was the fight against domestic and family violence against women, with several joint efforts in processes of this nature, and the fight against sexual crimes against minors, especially rape of vulnerable people. Today it is possible to see that there has been a considerable decrease in crimes against women and sexual crimes, a fact that I consider extremely important and that shows the relevance of the role of the Judiciary.

ET: What points have you sought to prioritize in your management?

Geildson de Souza: The priority of my management is to make decisions effective, that is, to ensure that the person who seeks the judiciary actually receives the right he has, not just receiving a sentence. In terms of institution, the priority of our management is always to reduce the procedural backlog and achieve the goals of the National Council of Justice, which we have achieved every year.

ET: With vast experience in the municipality, how do you evaluate the main demands received by the Comarca?

Geildson de Souza: Today, the biggest demand received in the Comarca is against the municipality itself, issues related to the receipt of labor rights, such as vacations and unpaid remuneration, in addition to the search for rights such as payment of the minimum wage. Within the scope of the Special Court, the Comarca has received an alarming number of lawsuits against financial institutions and we have witnessed with great concern the practice of predatory law, which is the mass filing of generic actions by law firms, a situation that has been collapsing the judiciary and making judicial activity disproportionately difficult.

However, we are making several efforts and devising strategies to meet the growing number of claims against the banks, and it is important to highlight that this problem is at the state or perhaps national level and, in our opinion, should be duly analyzed by the presidencies of the courts and also by the own National Council of Justice.

ET: We also received from Codajás several problems from consumers with banking institutions, mainly Bradesco, mainly related to baskets of services and tariffs. Would harsher punishments be necessary?

Geildson de Souza: Today, without a doubt, Bradesco is the private institution that most occupies the passive pole of lawsuits in the State of Amazonas, and also the one that receives the most convictions. This occurs because Bradesco is the bank with the most operations in the interior of the State, with municipalities where this bank is the only option for the consumer. However, today the number of lawsuits against virtually all banks is increasing, especially with regard to loans improperly granted linked to credit cards.

I believe that in individual actions, punishments to the bank are already enough, since as a rule banks are condemned to pay twice as much as they unduly deducted from the consumer, often with the condemnation also in moral damages, and a greater punishment would cause the illicit enrichment of the parts. I’ve seen examples where the bank unduly discounted less than a thousand reais from the customer and then had to pay the same more than 20 thousand reais, which in my opinion is disproportionate.

Individual actions will not solve the problem and will not make financial institutions stop or even reduce this illegal practice, as it financially compensates for the bank to make undue discounts on consumer accounts in view of the tiny number of people who go to court to seek their rights. compared to the amount of people who suffer undue discounts.

For the bank to shoulder individual convictions and maintain the illegal practice is still quite lucrative. Precisely for this reason, I understand that this situation of the banks must be faced as a social crisis and seen as an aggression against diffuse or collective rights that requires the action not only of the judiciary, but of all the Powers of the Republic and of institutions such as the Public Ministry and Public Defender’s Office, especially since today, unfortunately, there are also numerous law firms that are improperly attracting clients to file lawsuits against banks, which has been collapsing the justice system as a whole.

If there is no urgent action by all institutions to combat this practice, as is done in other countries, the Judiciary will lose its ability to resolve conflicts and enter into real collapse, a reality that already happens with some courts in the State of Amazonas. .

ET: Tell us a little about your professional career, why you chose to be a judge, what your previous experiences were and how long you have been in Comarca de Codajás.

Geildson de Souza: As I usually joke with colleagues, I’ve been practically everything inside a Justice forum. I started my professional career as an intern for a judge from Pernambuco that I consider a source of inspiration, called Tito Lívio de Araújo Monteiro. I also interned at law firms, a career that has always been my passion and one that I thought I would pursue for the rest of my life. I was a judicial technician and later an analyst at the Court of Justice of the State of Pernambuco, where I even became a legal advisor to the aforementioned magistrate.

After a few years as an advisor, I decided to leave the public tender and follow what I thought was my vocation, which was law. As a lawyer, I was a commercial board attorney and then a municipal attorney, and in law I stood out especially in the civil and business areas. After some time in law, I began to believe that as a magistrate I could do more for society and I realized that my true vocation was not to be a lawyer, as I really missed the time I spent as an advisor.

On the other hand, most of my colleagues believed that because I had a more technical and less political profile, they advised me to join the judiciary, which was also my late father’s wish. For this reason, and also because I come from a humble family, I decided to start studying for the magistracy, a profession that I now realize I was born to practice. In 2017 I was appointed to the position of magistrate at the Court of Justice of Amazonas and since then I have worked in several districts, such as Benjamim Constant, Caapiranga, Manacapuru and Codajás, where I have been since 2019.

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