Sixty-six years old, 34 years in the judiciary, 41 years married, three children, two grandchildren, and a vivacity and memory to be envied. Listening to Sérgio Aparecido Paio, Judge of the Court for Property and Public Records of the District of Araguaína, was like taking a stroll through the history of the Judiciary and, of course, of the State of Tocantins. All the stories in this article were told by the magistrate during an interview given to the team from the Communication Center of the Court of Justice of the State of Tocantins (TJTO) in November 2023, before his sudden death in January 2024.
Their story illustrates the month of March in the institutional calendar of 2024. The product, along with the agenda, is part of the commemorative kit for the 35th anniversary of the TJTO and features a special series of tributes to people who have contributed to the building of the history of the Court. The 11 stories are published on the TJTO website and can be accessed via the QR CODE available for each month of the calendar.
"It's always an honor to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with men and women of strength and fiber who have made the history of the State of Tocantins. It's important to be part of it, but we have to recognize the work of everyone. Were we there? We were there as part of history, that's all, without being protagonists. There are other protagonists who deserve all our respect and admiration," said the magistrate.
A native of São Paulo, he began his career in the State of Roraima and arrived in the State of Tocantins in 1989 to take up the position of Judge in the first competition held after the creation of the State. He was assigned to the municipality of Aurora, in the southeast, to set up the district, but due to a lack of conditions, he was asked to return to the city of Miracema, at the time the provisional capital, to head one of the courts, after José de Moura Filho took over as the Chief of Justice in charge.
He stayed in the city of Miracema for 15 to 20 days, because the President of the Court of Justice at the time, Osmar José da Silva, retired and the then Judge José de Moura Filho took up a seat on the Court. New Judges were sworn in, and Sérgio Paio was summoned to the city of Araguaína, where he set up the then 4th Civil Court, which today is the 1st Family Court of the District, where he remained until 1993.
In the same year, he was appointed Judge of the Court of the District of Augustinópolis. He was then promoted to the District of Philadelphia and then, in 1994, to the District of Araguaína, in the 2nd Criminal Court, which he was headed by magistrate José Aluísio da Silva Luz, after whom the Forum of the city is named. He stayed in the Criminal Court until June 1999 and asked to be removed to the newly created Public Treasury and Registry Court, where he has remained to this day.
"Those were difficult times at first. The District of Araguaína had two civil courts and one criminal court, in '89, and then, as soon as the State of Tocantins was established, the Court made the first changes, by resolution, to the Judicial Organization Law of the State of Goiás, which prevailed in the State of Tocantins. Other courts were created. When I arrived to install the 4th Civil Court, there were six Judges in the District of Araguaína."
The Judge recalls that the Court of the Jury, which was located in the old courthouse in the center of the city of Araguaína, was transformed into offices to house Judges and members of the State Prosecution, which had no structure. "As well as the lack of structure, we suffered from a lack of roads. Colleagues who went to set up courts in the districts of Axixá, Formoso do Araguaia, Araguaçu had difficulty even getting to the courts. The road from the cities of Araguaína to Xambioá went just beyond the city of Carmolândia. From there on, it was a dirt road, not always passable, which was no different in other regions of the State."
"Difficulties were many, but victories and successes were greater"
But the difficulties were not limited to the courts. The Judge says it must be recognized that the Court of Justice itself did not have an adequate administrative and functional structure. "None of the Justices appointed to make up the initial court had ever been a Justice. João Alves had the most experience, because he was Director of the Forum of the city of Goiânia when he was summoned and appointed to the State of Tocantins," he observes, adding that, "apparently, the north of the State of Tocantins was like a backyard of the city of Goiânia and there was no structure, including in the Judiciary."
A curious fact, recalled the magistrate, is that in the Code of Judicial Organization, adopted by the State of Tocantins and which was from the State of Goiás, it said that "above the 13th parallel, service was double-counted and there was a remuneration, if I'm not mistaken, of around 10% more for those who wanted to come and work in the north of the former State of Goiás, now State of Tocantins," he emphasized. "Of course, with the creation of the State, starting at the 13th parallel, there was no longer this bonus and this fictitious counting of length of service."
But as Sérgio Paio says, "there were many difficulties, but there were greater victories and successes."Proof of this is that, according to the magistrate, already at the beginning of the Court, he had the idea that the Judges should be living closer to the community."I remember that as soon as Justice Antônio Félix took office (1995 to 1997), he created a program called 'Community, Justice in Action'. It was a program that sought a way, from what is preached today, that conciliation is a great apparatus to reduce this congestion rate that we have in the Judiciary."
Pillars of a pioneering Judiciary
Sérgio Paio emphasizes that several facets have contributed to the transformation of the Judiciary in the State of Tocantins over the years, until the time came to change the physical infrastructure and the construction of the forums began. One of the first was in the capital, Palmas.
"A lot of pioneering, history. We end up living many stories, from hearsay, from the news, from other colleagues, but they are situations in which many had the same thought. And what were they thinking? To achieve the best we could."
With regard to the physical structure of the courts, the judge is emphatic in saying that today it is completely different. "First we had to organize the justice system. I had the pleasure and honor of presiding over the first competition for civil servers at the Court of Justice of the State of Tocantins," he recalls, adding that there have been several developments, such as the implementation of the Procedural System, then Eproc.
"From then on, there was a quantitative and qualitative evolution in the provision of judicial services. Of course, alongside this evolution, there was a growing increase in demand, which was already voluminous."
The magistrate
The Judge, who chose to consolidate his career in the district of Araguaína, says he is "a provincial". But more than that, he emphasizes that having a humanistic background has helped him in the challenges he has faced. "I always say that law, justice and common sense are above all else. I know that sometimes times aren't easy for us to talk about common sense, but I've always guided my life in this way, whether in my day-to-day life with my family, or in my time before becoming a magistrate (...). This humanist training of often knowing that emotion is important, but that reason and legality override everything. I always joke that in my day-to-day dealings I'm an absolutely informal Judge, but in the process I'm an absolutely formal judge."
Sérgio also notes that you have to live in the reality of the moment.
"I come from a simple family, I learned from my father that no matter how bad the truth is, it must always prevail. These are principles that you carry from your family education, from your own history over a lifetime. I wouldn't say that the difficulties I faced changed me, I would say that I used the experience I had to be able to shape and overcome the difficulties and obstacles I experienced."
And in these three decades, the Judge makes a reference to the civil servers of the judiciary. "You have to remember the many civil servers who have helped us all these years. They are our hands, they are our feet. We always refer to the judicial staff as the LONGA MANUS of the Judges. If we're on the front line, with our faces, our courage, our names and some legal knowledge, they're out there on a daily basis providing general assistance to the public and working."
With an application for retirement filed since 2019, the magistrate doesn't have many plans. "The hard part will be learning to start again, at least at the moment, but the future belongs to God. We're going to complete 35 years of effective and uninterrupted exercise of the magistracy."
