Judicial Debt Indexation (Brazil)

Each claim has its own regime

The civil-standard preset follows STJ Tema 1.368: full SELIC until 29/08/2024 and, from 30/08/2024, IPCA for correction plus the Legal Rate for interest (Law 14.905/2024). The labor preset applies the ADC 58 regime in three phases (IPCA-E + TRD before filing; exclusive SELIC from filing to 29/08/2024; IPCA + Legal Rate after).

Claims against a public entity have their own line: TR until 25/03/2015, IPCA-E until 08/12/2021 (STF RE 870.947) and SELIC from 09/12/2021 (EC 113/2021). And there are the contractual presets, IGP-M and IPCA, for debts where the index was set in the contract. Choosing the right preset is what prevents applying one nature's index to another nature's claim.

• Civil: SELIC → IPCA + Legal Rate (STJ Tema 1.368).
• Labor: three phases (ADC 58 + Law 14.905).
• Public entity: TR → IPCA-E → SELIC (RE 870.947 / EC 113).
• Contractual: IGP-M or IPCA, per the instrument.

The dates of moral damages

Moral damages is the case where the time milestones confuse most, because correction and interest start on different dates. Under STJ Súmula 362, the monetary correction of a moral-damages award runs from the arbitration date (when the judge set the amount). Default interest, in extra-contractual liability, runs from the damaging event (STJ Súmula 54).

That is why the moral-damages preset asks for the arbitration date besides the event date: a R$ 20,000 amount set today is corrected only from now, but interest reaches back to the day of the fact. In property damage, both correction and interest run from the damaging event (STJ Súmula 43), a single milestone.

Event, arbitration and filing

Each preset uses different milestones, and entering the wrong date distorts the result. The event/due date is the general starting point (property damage, matured debt). The arbitration date is specific to moral damages (start of correction under Súm. 362). The filing date is the milestone that, in labor claims, switches the index to exclusive SELIC.

The tool details the result by time segment, showing which index applied to each stretch. That helps you check against the case file's spreadsheet and understand why the total changed, but, because it deals with tables that update, treat the number as an estimate and confirm with the courts' official tables before filing.

• Event/due date: general starting point.
• Arbitration date: start of moral-damages correction.
• Filing date: switches to exclusive SELIC in labor claims.
• Result detailed by segment, for cross-checking.

Two complements to the civil preset

The condominium preset applies CC art. 1,336, §1: when the bylaws set no default interest, the law fills the gap, and that rule changed with Law 14.905/2024. Until 29/08/2024, the supplementary interest was a fixed 1% per month; from 30/08/2024, the same provision now points to the Legal Rate under art. 406, exactly as in the general civil regime. The penalty (capped at 2% of the debt) is entered separately, in its own field, because it is a one-time penalty, not interest.

Partial payments solve a common problem: the debtor paid part of the debt on an intermediate date, and you need to know how much remains, corrected. The tool applies each payment first to interest already accrued up to that date, and only then to the corrected principal, following the order set by CC art. 354, without generating interest on the interest still outstanding (every preset here uses simple interest, with no capitalization).

• Condominium: 1% monthly until 29/08/2024, Legal Rate after.
• Condominium penalty (up to 2%) is a fine, not interest.
• Partial payment: interest first, principal after (CC art. 354).
• No interest on outstanding interest (always simple regime).