The City of Sao Paulo, a municipality in Brazil, has enacted a Law on March 19, 2020. The purpose is to reduce litigation in the city, stimulate ADR’s and better manage the high volume of judicial lawsuits currently handled by the city attorneys. São Paulo shall implement a public policy to broaden the adoption of out of court solutions, to be coordinated by the chief-city attorney. The city shall consider mediation in its cases and can implement specific taskforces aiming at settling as many disputes as possible involving specific matters that trigger a significant amount of lawsuits.

The Article 7 of the new Law provides that the city of Sao Paulo can adopt Arbitration to resolve its disputes. It should be however read in the context of the whole law, in the sense that the public servants of the city of São Paulo from now on have the obligation to adopt out of court methods such as arbitration, whenever they are the most adequate option.

For ref: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6d7e539a-ebbe-46e4-a7a4-b90f1de4071d