Bank account frozen by a court in Brazil: what to do and how much time you have

If your account was frozen by order of a Brazilian court, the freeze came from a collection lawsuit against you. The most important point is the deadline: after you are formally notified of the freeze, you have 5 days to show the judge that the money could not be frozen, for example because it is salary, a retirement pension or savings of up to 40 times the Brazilian minimum wage, or that the freeze went beyond the amount of the debt (Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure, art. 854, §3). After that deadline, it becomes much harder to recover the money.

Why the account was frozen

The judge orders the freeze through Sisbajud, the system that connects Brazilian courts to banks. This happens within a collection lawsuit, called an enforcement proceeding (execução) or enforcement of a judgment (cumprimento de sentença). The most common origins:

Debt with a bank: loan, credit card, overdraft, financing.
Debt with the city, the state or the federal government, such as IPTU (municipal property tax) or overdue taxes (tax enforcement proceeding, execução fiscal).
A judgment in a lawsuit you lost and did not pay.

Many people only find out about the lawsuit when the account is frozen, because they could not be found at the registered address.

How to find out where the freeze came from

The bank usually provides the case number and the court that ordered the freeze. With that number, you can look up the lawsuit on the court’s website and see who is collecting, how much, and what stage the collection is at. Also write down the date you found out about the freeze: it helps count the deadline.

What Brazilian law does not allow to be frozen

The Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure protects certain amounts (art. 833). The most common cases:

Salary, retirement pension and other pensions (item IV). This protection has exceptions: child or spousal support debts and the part of income above 50 times the minimum wage per month (§2). In exceptional situations, the STJ (Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice) has allowed part of a salary to be frozen, as long as what the person and their family need to live on is preserved.
Up to 40 times the minimum wage kept in a savings account (item X). The STJ understands that this protection can also apply to money in a checking account or an investment, when it works as the person’s reserve.

An important caution: the judge does not apply this 40-minimum-wage protection on their own. You are the one who has to request it, within the deadline, and show where the money comes from (STJ, Theme 1,235). That is why the 5-day deadline matters so much.

Freeze larger than the debt

The system may freeze the same amount at more than one bank at the same time, or hold more than the amount being collected. This excess can also be challenged within the same 5 days, and whatever exceeds the amount of the debt must be released.

Other defenses against the collection

Besides asking for the release of protected money, it may be possible to challenge the collection itself. Some examples: a debt barred by the statute of limitations, a calculation with interest or charges above what was agreed, collection of an amount already paid, or a defect in service of process, when you were not notified of the lawsuit as the law requires. Each defense has its own form and deadline, which depend on the type of lawsuit. See how defense in enforcement proceedings and auctions works.

What to do now

Get the case number from the bank and write down the date you found out about the freeze.
Gather the documents that show where the money comes from: statements from recent months, pay slip or proof of your INSS (Brazil’s social security agency) benefit, savings account statement.
Write down the date you were formally notified of the freeze: the 5-day deadline runs from it.

Release depends on what the documents show and on the judge’s decision.

Sources

This text is for information only and does not replace a lawyer's review of your case. The rules cited are Brazilian law as of the article's last update.