Why the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead in Brazil? Revisiting Speculations Concerning Repeat Players and One-Shooters in the Brazilian Litigation Setting

Abstract

Galanter’s speculations regarding the configuration and advantages of repeat players in the litigation game have been extremely relevant to understand institution, rules and actors in North American litigation, as well as the reflection on the limits and potentialities of a redistributive approach to judicial litigation. This essay attempts to read the Brazilian litigation landscape by also reversing the end of the telescope, as Galanter proposed, and focusing in the players of the litigation game. Such approach seems utterly relevant, considering that recent reforms have purported the urgent need to deal with growing caseloads of individual repeated litigation filed for or against repeat players by one-shooters. The idea is to better understand these reforms considering the role played by the different actors of the system. Though also a speculative essay, it is possible to infer that repeat players enjoy great advantages in the Brazilian setting and are able to influence judicial and procedural reforms in order to maintain and strengthen its capabilities of maneuvering a highly overloaded judicial system. The empowerment of one-shooters, one the other hand, relies on a redistributive approach to access to justice, prioritizing proceedings and structures that provide for an easier access and more adequate responses to individual claims involving such litigants.