Brazil shall soon become a Contracting State of The Hague Apostille Convention. But what will really change? – Leal Cotrim Advogados

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Brazil shall soon become a Contracting State of The Hague Apostille Convention. But what will really change?

On 6 July 2015, Legislative Decree No 148, signed by the President of Senate, has put Brazil on its way to be a party to The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Apostille Convention (full text available at https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=41).

On 2 December 2015, Brazil deposited its instrument, and sixty days after the elapse of the six-month period for objections to Brazil’s accession, the Apostille Convention shall enter into force between Brazil and other Contracting States that have not opposed Brazil’s accession. Thus, on 14 August 2016 Brazil shall become a Contracting State to the Apostille Convention.

Upon the entering into force of the Apostille Convention, Brazil shall both (i) no longer require the legalisation, by Brazilian consulates located in Contracting States, of documents produced in said countries, which legalisation shall be replaced by the Apostille; and (ii) be ready to issue Apostilles for persons who wish to take documents produced in Brazil to other Contracting States.

The idea of elimination of the requirement of legalisation is likely to induce the understanding that the procedure to validate a document for its use in Brazil shall be significantly shortened. However, that is not totally accurate.

Currently, a document produced abroad requires more than its legalisation for its validation and use in Brazil. The current requirements comprise: (i) legalisation; (ii) translation into Portuguese by a translator accredited with a Companies’ Register; and (iii) registration of original document and corresponding translation with a register of deeds and documents.

The Apostille Convention shall only remove the first requirement (legalisation): translation and registration will still be required.

As to the apostille issue and appending procedures, the Brazilian National Council of Justice (CNJ) enacted Resolution 228, on 22 June 2016. [Click here to access the full wording of the resolution]

The authority to issue and append apostilles to documents produced in Brazil is now basically vested with the staff of Internal Affairs in Justice (whenever the Judiciary Power is an interested party) and with notaries public, within the limits of their jurisdictions.

An online system — SEI Apostila — has been created and will be managed by CNJ. In summary, the system is intended to (i) portray the list of Contracting States; (ii) show the identification and access information of all authorities accredited to issue and append apostilles; and (iii) allow any interested person to check the authenticity of apostilles.

However, the SEI Apostila system itself shall only be in place and ready for use after further regulation, which shall depend on analysis to be conducted by the so-called Permanent Commission for Information Technology and Infrastructure.

The fact that as from 14 August 2016 every apostille shall be issued through SEI Apostila, as well as the amount of work that seems necessary to put it in full operational form, we foresee some challenges ahead for those who will need to obtain an apostille in Brazil in the near future.

On the other hand, in light of the circumstance that, alongside the obtaining of apostille, the translation of a foreign document into Portuguese by an accredited translator, as well as its registration with a register of deeds and documents, shall still be required, Brazil’s adhesion to the Apostille Convention is not that significant in practice.

After all, the extent to which the elimination of the legalisation requirement shall contribute to the effective reduction of the timeframe of the whole validation procedure is yet to be confirmed.

Privacy Policy

Leal Cotrim Jansen Advogados (“Leal Cotrim”) is firmly committed to respecting the privacy of its members, clients and all individuals whose personal data we collect, store or process in any other way. Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person is personal data.

This Privacy Policy guides the processing of personal data by Leal Cotrim and disciplines the exercise of the rights of the individuals whose personal data are processed by Leal Cotrim and/or on behalf of Leal Cotrim. We kindly ask that you read it carefully before providing us with your personal data and every time you wish to know how we use your personal data.

1. How we process your personal data

All processing operations carried out by Leal Cotrim are compliant with the applicable laws, especially Law 13,709/2018 (“Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados”) and Law 8,906/1994 (“Estatuto da Advocacia”).

We only processes your personal data under the following legal basis:

(i) under your consent;
(ii) for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation;
(iii) for the performance of a contract for the provision of legal services or in order to take related steps prior to entering in such a contract;
(iv) for the regular exercise of rights within a judicial lawsuit, na administrative or arbitral procedure; and
(v) for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by Leal Cotrim, except where such interests are overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of your personal data.

Visiting and browsing our website are anonymous. Regarding the use of our website, we only collect the personal data that are provided by you when you use the contact tool available on our website, under your explicit consent.

For your privacy to be preserved, if you forward you personal data to Leal Cotrim in order to be considered for one of our vacancies, they will be securely erased immediately after the recruitment process ends.

In any case, Leal Cotrim only processes the personal data that are necessary to achieve the purpose of the processing, and for the period that is necessary to do so.

2. How we protect you personal data

Leal Cotrim adopts technical and administrative measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and from non-intentional or unlawful destruction, loss, modification, communication and dissemination. However, any security incident involving your personal data that may cause you significant risk or harm will be communicated to you and to the National Data Protection Authority – ANPD within a reasonable time.

3. Your rights as data subject

As a data subject, you have the following rights, subject to the provisions of article 7, II, of Law 8,906/94 and article 7, VI, of Law 13,709/2018:

(i) confirmation as to whether your personal data are being processed;
(ii) access to your personal data;
(iii) rectification of your personal data that are incomplete, inaccurate or outdated;
(iv) anonymisation, restriction of processing, or erasure of your personal data that are unnecessary, excessive, or processed in non-compliance with the provisions of the applicable law;
(v) portability of your personal data for the use of another services provider, in accordance with the regulations issued by the National Data Protection Authority – ANPD, subject to the protection of commercial and industrial secrets;
(vi) erasure of your personal data, except in the cases provided for in the applicable law;
(vii) information about public and private entities with which we share your personal data;
(viii) information about the possibility of not providing your consent for the processing of personal data and about the consequences of the refusal;
(ix) withdrawal of your consent, subject to the public interest that may justify the processing to continue or the existence of another legal basis that authorizes it; and
(x) opposition to any processing of personal data based on one of the legal basis that do not require consent, provided that there has been a breach of the applicable law, and subject to the public interest that may justify the processing to continue.

4. How you can exercise your rights

At any time, you can exercise your rights as a data subject by sending a request to encarregado@lealcotrim.com.br. Following confirmation of your identity, your request shall be answered within the legal term or, in the absence of a legal term, within a reasonable period.

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5. Changes to this privacy policy

This Privacy policy was drafted in accordance with the current laws and may be modified to better suit the applicable laws and regulations. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective as of the date indicated below.

01 December 2020