With digitization, ‘mountains’ of processes will end up in SP – 01/24/2023 – Politics

Files of lawsuits pile up in a room at the Barra Funda Criminal Forum, in the west zone of São Paulo. The paper walls illustrate the end of the first phase of digitalization of the TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) collection, which ended in December.

Conversion to electronic format was a demand of legal professionals, especially lawyers.

Since 2016, the court does not accept paper cases. However, the lack of storage capacity of the court’s electronic system at the time prevented digitization from taking place at that time.

In all, there are 6.4 million physical processes in progress in the state, which represents 29% of the collection. Keeping them that way means spending on physical space and slow resolution of cases, which was evident in the pandemic.

During this period, the closing of forums and the reduction of working hours affected the processing of these actions, which were paralyzed.

The court partnered with the State Public Prosecutor’s Office and attorneys’ offices, for example, and also authorized lawyers and people involved in the actions to withdraw the processes to digitize them on their own. But adherence was low, mainly due to the cost.

In May 2021, the court hired a company to do the job. From August of that year until October 2022, BRL 18.3 million were spent to digitize almost 200 million images, equivalent to 567,000 processes.

Judge Vanessa Martiniano, secretary of the court’s first instance, explains that each court is notified about the withdrawal of processes for digitization. Until the conclusion of the work, the deadlines for the actions remain suspended.

The processes are organized by batches and transported by the company to the digitalization centers. At the site, each action receives a barcode and is forwarded to the teams.

At Barra Funda, the center was set up in a large room, with several scanners and computers. There is an employee for each step, from logistics to reassembly.

After digitization, the processes are returned to the notaries, who verify that the digitization was done correctly. If so, the case is entered into the court system. Thereafter, there is a 30-day period for questions.

Physical processes remain archived for one year before disposal. Those whose custody was determined by the Court, in case of criminal actions with conviction, for example, will be kept.

By March, the court should launch another public notice to digitize the collection of municipalities in the interior.

The forecast was to complete digitization in the state by 2026, but the CNJ (National Council of Justice) established that courts with more than 20% of the collection in physical format must complete this process by December 2024.

The deadline will be met, according to Judge Ricardo Dal Pizzol, advisor to the civil office of the presidency of the court.

“Digitization was very incipient and we are ending the year with the entire capital digitized, a good part of Greater São Paulo and several other regions in the interior. With a couple more years, starting in May of next year, we will finish the entire state. “

In addition to the gain in court speed, he claims that digitalization improves the court environments and frees up space, which should allow for the integration of units in the long term.