An arrest is happening right now

This page is for someone who needs to act in the next few hours. It does not replace a lawyer's guidance on the specific case, but it gathers what Brazilian law guarantees and who to call while the clock is running.

First: the person under arrest is not left without a defence

If no one appoints a lawyer, a full copy of the flagrante arrest record (auto de prisão em flagrante) goes to the Defensoria Pública (Brazil's public defender service), and a public defender attends the custody hearing (CPP, Brazil's Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 306, §1º). No one goes to the hearing alone for lack of a private lawyer.

The deadline is 24 hours

A person who has been arrested, whether in the act or on a warrant, must be brought before a judge within 24 hours of the arrest (CPP, art. 310; Resolução CNJ 213/2015, art. 13). That is the custody hearing.

At the hearing the judge examines whether the arrest was lawful, looks into whether there was violence during the police stop, and decides between releasing the person because the arrest was unlawful, converting it into pre-trial detention, or granting provisional release, with or without bail and, where appropriate, with precautionary measures other than detention (CPP, art. 319).

If the hearing does not take place within the deadline, tell the defence so that it can consider what steps are appropriate. The delay does not produce automatic release; the lawfulness of the arrest has to be examined on the facts of the case.

What to do now

1. Find out which police station the person is being held at. The arrest must be reported immediately to the competent judge, to the Ministério Público (Brazil's public prosecution service) and to the family or a person named by the detainee (CF, Brazil's Federal Constitution, art. 5º, LXII; CPP, art. 306).
2. Call the Defensoria Pública. Defensoria Pública de Santa Catarina, office in the state capital: (48) 3665-6370. Check the contact channels and opening hours on the Defensoria Pública de SC website. Outside business hours or unable to get through, contact the judicial district's out-of-hours duty service (plantão judiciário). The contact details are in the official list of the TJSC (Santa Catarina's state court).
3. Gather the detained person's documents. Identity document, CPF (the Brazilian individual taxpayer number), proof of address and, if there is one, proof of employment or of school enrolment. These are the documents usually asked for at the hearing.
4. Tell the detained person about the right to remain silent. No one is required to produce evidence against themselves, and silence cannot be interpreted against the defence (CF, art. 5º, LXIII; CPP, art. 186, parágrafo único).

About the statement at the police station

The Constituição guarantees a person under arrest the assistance of a lawyer, and the Estatuto da Advocacia (the Brazilian Bar statute) entitles a lawyer to assist the person under investigation during the inquiry (Lei 8.906/94, art. 7º, XXI).

The lawyer's presence is not a legal requirement for the act to take place: the inquiry can proceed without it. What protects the person being questioned is the right to remain silent, which may be exercised at any moment.