Rio closes Copacabana small claims court after 30 years

Rio de Janeiro's Fifth Special Civil Court in Copacabana closed its doors after 30 years of handling roughly 800 small claims cases a month, many from elderly residents in a neighborhood with Brazil's largest population of older citizens.

Cases will now be split among seven downtown courts about five miles away, with the state judiciary promising faster proceedings and a remaining walk-in desk plus online filing. Neighborhood groups and the local bar association say they were never consulted and only learned of the closure when the resolution was published in June.

The state court's own resolution cited a rise in cases involving public entities but supplied no figures, and offered no data on caseloads, backlogs, or projected speed gains to back its efficiency claim. It also declined to confirm when — or whether — a replacement court will open at the Copacabana site.

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