The Public Advocacy

Article 131. The Advocacy-General of the Union is the institution which, either directly or through a subordinated agency, represents the Union judicially or extrajudicially.

• It is responsible, under the terms of the supplementary law which provides for its organization and operation, for the activities of judicial consultation and assistance to the Executive Power.

The Advocacy-General of the Union is headed by the Advocate-General of the Union, freely appointed by the President of the Republic from among citizens over thirty-five years of age, of notable juridical learning and spotless reputation.

Admission into the initial classes of the careers of the institution dealt with in this article shall take place by means of a civil service entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials.

In the execution of receivable taxes of a tributary nature, the Union shall be represented by the office of the Attorney-General of the Public Finances, observing the provisions of the law.

Article 132

The Prosecutors of the states and of the Federal District, organized in a career, admission into which shall depend on a civil service entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials, with the participation of the Brazilian Bar Association in all of its stages, shall exercise judicial representation and judicial consultation for their respective federated units. (CA No. 19, 1998)

The Prosecutors referred to in this article are entitled to acquire tenure after three years of effective exercise, by means of a performance appraisal carried out by the relevant agencies, following a detailed report issued by the corregidors.

Section 3: The Legal Profession and the Public Legal Defense

Article 133. The lawyer is indispensable to the administration of justice and is inviolable for his acts or manifestations in the exercise of his profession, within the limits of the law.

Article 134. The Public Legal Defense is an essential institution to the jurisdictional function of the State and is responsible for the judicial guidance and the defense, in all levels, of the needy, under the terms of article 5, LXXIV.

Paragraph 1. A supplementary law shall organize the Public Legal Defense of the Union, of the Federal District and the Territories and shall prescribe general rules for its organization in the states, into career offices filled, in the initial class, by means of a civil service entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials, with the guarantee of irremovability being ensured to its members and the practice of the legal profession beyond the institutional attributions being forbidden.

Paragraph 2. The Public Legal Defense of each state shall be ensured of functional and administrative autonomy, as well as the prerogative to present its budget proposal within the limits set forth in the law of budgetary directives and in due compliance with the provisions of article 99, paragraph 2.

Article 135. Servants in the careers regulated in Sections 2 and 3 of this Chapter shall be remunerated according to article 39, paragraph 4.