THE OBLIGATION OF POOR PEOPLE TO PAY LEGAL FEES AND THE JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

Abstract

The change in the labor law made in the brasilian legislation (Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho - CLT) affected those who need to file a lawsuit about the matter. The new law has established that even those who prove that they can’t pay legal fees (that are caled “beneficiaries of free justice”) would have to pay fees for the attorney of the winnign part and fees for experts, if needed in the process, if their requests were rejected. This determination caused controversy. For some, it would generate more responsibility in those who seek labor justice, avoiding absurd and disproportionate requests. For others, it represented an affront to the right to access justice, preventing workers from seeking their rights because they would be afraid of beeing even more financially harmed. But beyond the cold letter of the law, the judges, that have direct contact with the parties, dealt in a special way with this new law. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze how the operators of the law fit the norm in the social reality.