THE NOTARIAL ACT AS A MEANS OF EVIDENCE: AN ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE COURTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the notarial act as a means of proof from the perspective of the Judiciary Branch. Notarial minutes gained popularity as of 2015, with the enactment of the Civil Procedure Code. By means of this public instrument, the Notary Public, at the request of an interested party, verifies facts, things, people and situations that appear or occur in its presence, without any personal judgment, with a relative presumption of veracity and public faith. In some cases, the notarial act is the only means of proof of a fact or situation. For this reason, the present work aims to study the institute of notarial act, with a view to assessing its value in the evidentiary load of a lawsuit. The research was carried out through the dialectical method and analysis of bibliographies and legislation on the theoretical part and through documentary research in relation to the jurisprudence of the Courts. In the end, it was concluded that the use of notarial minutes gained greater incidence in forensic practice from the 2015 Code of Civil Procedure, being an effective instrument as a means of evidence in legal claims, due to the public faith of the Notary, of the relative presumption of veracity of this public document, the impartiality of the Notary and the agility in its preparation.