Justice resumes payment of INSS precatories without postponing lawyer fees

The CJF (Council of Federal Justice) authorized the federal courts to resume the process of paying the 2022 precatories, scheduled for the first half of August and which include INSS (National Social Security Institute) retirees’ actions.

In an extraordinary session this Tuesday (2), the magistrates decided that the lawyers’ fees must be paid on the same date as the precatory of the plaintiff. The new payment schedule was not disclosed.

If the retiree will receive the review money in 2022, the attorney will also receive the payment on the same date. Precatórios food, elderly and people with disabilities have priority in the queue and if the creditor has priority, the lawyer will also have it.

The CJF established a limit: if the creditor has more than 180 minimum wages to receive (R$ 218,160, in 2022), the difference will be paid in 2023 to the beneficiary and the lawyer.

With the measure, experts in social security law say that the 2023 court order will increase, but only slightly. “In 2023, those who were left out this year and those who were preferred will be paid first”, says lawyer Fernando Gonçalves Dias.

In the CJF session, federal judge Marisa Santos, from the TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region), which serves São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, stated that if the precatory was paid in full with the fees, 1,812 creditors would be removed from this year’s list and 4,985 beneficiaries would be added.

However, as the ceiling of 180 minimum wages was established, no one will leave the 2022 payment list, released in July. However, some will have to wait until next year to receive a remaining balance.

The stalemate began in early July of this year, when federal courts cleared the consultation and lawyers discovered that their fees were not due to be paid in 2022.

The Federal Council of the OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil) filed a request with the CJF to question the methodology, which separated the amounts owed to lawyers. Therefore, the council had suspended the payment of federal precatories across the country until it made a decision on the subject.

The new methodology is in Constitutional Amendment 114, originated from the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatórios, which limited the payment of precatories and freed up money for the government to spend in an election year.

WHO HAS PRIORITY TO RECEIVE PRECATORIES, ACCORDING TO AND AMENDMENT 114:

1. Citizens with precatories of up to 180 minimum wages from 60 years of age or with a disability or serious illness
2. Creditors of alimony of any age, limited to 180 minimum wages
3. Too many alimony debts
4. Other precatories

credit x debit

For the federal government to pay off all precatories of 2022, the Judiciary had requested R$ 42.8 billion, but received R$ 32.4 billion — 75% of the forecast.

The Federal Court, which pays the precatories of policyholders who won cases against the INSS, received R$ 25.4 billion. The remaining R$ 7 billion are for other areas of the Judiciary.

“The fees are set aside to meet the previously agreed obligation and are part of the credit to which the beneficiary is entitled, and must be paid at the same moment and at the same moment”, said Jorge Mussi, minister of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), in your vote in favor of the OAB request this morning.

For the president of Ajufe (Association of Federal Judges of Brazil), Nelson Gustavo Mesquita Ribeiro Alves, the discussion goes beyond guaranteeing the payment of legal fees with the creditor’s precatory.

“These constitutional amendments are nothing more than an attempt to weaken Justice and its members,” he said.