Monique Vieira Lessa
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
By means of Provision No. 01/2020, the Regional Labor Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRT 1st Region) has regulated the procedure for electronically summoning parties, lawyers and third parties via messaging apps such as WhatsApp Business or equivalent.
Adherence to this form of summons is optional, both for the units of the Court and for the parties, who can cancel their authorization at any time, as long as there is no pending communication on the app.
In addition, according to the provision, the summonses that can be sent electronically are those for attendance at hearings at the labor courts, outposts or Cejuscs; those for the removal of documents or media deposited at the court’s secretariat; for the acknowledgement of and compliance with orders, decisions, reports, certificates, petitions, letters and other documents in the case and, in certain cases, those for serving the defendant.
However, the rule expressly prohibits electronic summonses involving expropriatory procedures, such as attachment, which must follow the method established in ordinary legislation.
In addition, the act contains other interesting points that deserve to be highlighted, such as the need for the interested party to adhere to this form of summons, by filling in a Term of Adhesion made available on the Court’s website, and attaching it to the case file. In the case of third parties, such as witnesses and experts, there is no need to send this form in advance, but subpoenas sent via the app can only be validated if the recipient agrees to receive them by filling in the “Adherence Form” to be sent by the server who issues the subpoena or notification via the institutional messaging app.
The novelty is in line with the principles of the labor process, namely orality, simplicity, informality, economy, speed and the instrumentality of forms, and is a trend to be adopted by the other courts, which are currently facing major difficulties in carrying out procedural acts, due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
