If you’re planning to file a lawsuit in Brazil, make sure you’ve checked the relevant statute of limitations first. You may have waited too long to bring your claim.

Both the United States and Brazil have time limits, or statutes of limitations, within which you can file lawsuits. These time limits vary depending on the particular cause of action.

In the past, we wrote about statutes of limitations and provided examples for certain cases. If you missed it, you can find it HERE.

But Brazil has a second statute of limitations that often gets overlooked. That’s because litigation in Brazil has two phases. The first phase is a case on the merits while the second phase is to enforce the judgment.

Usually we think about statutes of limitations in the context of the initial phase. Fail to file in time and you lose your right to sue. But the enforcement phase has a statute of limitations too.

For example, a dispute over a lease must be brought within three years. If you get a judgment, you’d then have three years to bring an enforcement action. If you don’t, you’d be barred from recovering.

The time period in the enforcement phase is always the same as it is in the initial phase. Just make sure you’re within the time limit for both phases.

Litigation is full of deadlines, and if you’re not careful, you’ll blow them. So stay on top of your dates. Otherwise, you could miss an opportunity to recover.