Judicial Investigation in Eletricity Distribution Networks: Difficult and Uncertainty

Pedro Alberto B. V. dos Santos, and Carlos Barreira Martinez

Brasil Consultoria e Perícia, Brazil and UNIFEI, Brazil

Abstract: One of the tools in order to solve legal problems and pendency for the Brazilian court is to perform technical judicial investigations, which performed by CREA (Regional Council of Engineering and Architecture) legal professionals acknowledged by the judiciary. The professional (expert) is responsible for the procedures and results of a judicial investigation, thus, during the investigation, the expert answers for all the dues “veracity”. The path of a judicial investigation can be difficult due to the lack of either relevant information or cooperation from people involved in the process, who somehow wants to benefit from its end. This paper describes a series of difficulties lived during almost 20 years of judicial investigation in Brazil where expert’s decision making was shaped in order to preserve the veracity of the facts even with the noncooperation from the parties involved in the system. At the end, the paper suggests how young engineers who wants to be one experts in judicial investigations can surround themselves with legal techniques, which will guarantee their performance during the job with no losses for the state, the parties concerned, or the court.

Key words: non-technical losses, judicial investigations, technical report, electricity distribution networks, energy theft