I'm over-indebted: what does the law say?

There is a point where debt stops being a problem of organization and becomes a problem of survival: your salary comes in and goes right back out, and still doesn't cover everything. If that's where you are, know there is a law made exactly for this moment.

What to do now

1. Understand what over-indebtedness is. Law 14,181/2021 amended Brazil's Consumer Protection Code to protect individuals who, in good faith, can't pay their consumer debts without compromising the minimum they need to live (the "existential minimum": currently R$600 a month, under Decree 11,567/2023; in April 2026 the Supreme Federal Court, STF, ordered that amount to be reviewed every year, so check the current figure with Procon or the Public Defender's Office).
2. See which debts qualify. As a rule, loans, credit cards, overdrafts, store credit and utility bills qualify. Left out, for example, are loans secured by real collateral, mortgages, rural credit, debts taken on with the intention of not paying, and purchases of high-value luxury goods and services (Consumer Code, arts. 54-A, §3, and 104-A, §1). Child support and taxes follow their own rules.
3. Gather your documents. Contracts, statements, bills, proof of income and of essential expenses (rent, utilities, medicine, school). Registrato, from the Central Bank, helps you list your debts with banks.
4. Seek the right service. The law provides for joint conciliation: all creditors are called to a hearing to agree on a payment plan of up to five years. It can start at Procon, the Public Defender's Office or the CEJUSC (the state court's conciliation center). If there is no agreement, the judge can impose a court-ordered plan.
5. Don't miss the hearing and don't lie about your income. Good faith is a condition of the law. A creditor who fails to appear without justification may have collection suspended and be placed in the plan on terms less favorable to it.
6. Meanwhile, stop taking on new credit. The plan only works if the debt stops growing.
7. Take care of those around you. Over-indebtedness often comes with shame and fights at home. Talk with your family. If the anguish becomes too heavy, CVV answers at 188.

This page is general guidance. Whoever assesses your case is Procon, the Public Defender's Office or a lawyer.

When it happened to Bairo

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez says he reached the point where there was no plan left in the drawer: broke, broken and beaten, after an investment that didn't hold and with many people depending on him.

What got him out wasn't a shortcut. It was the decision to face the real size of the problem, without looking for someone to blame, and to rebuild step by step. He still had, he says, a flame of hope and faith. And he used what he had: time, willingness to learn and the stubbornness of someone who had already heard "no" many times.

The path

No one chooses to become over-indebted. The law exists because the country recognized that it happens to honest people. Using that protection is not weakness; it is responsibility. Bairo says every no is the ground of a yes: sometimes the yes begins by admitting, in front of a conciliator, that you can't do it alone anymore.

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