Stephen Kramer (asker) Oct 3, 2009:

Will do hope you find time to contribute, Thanks.

mediamatrix (X) Oct 3, 2009:

@Stephen If "2a Promotoria de Justiça de "city"" is a separate question, please post it separately and provide context.

Stephen Kramer (asker) Oct 3, 2009:

This is out of specialty and I'm learning so what would be the American English equivelant to 2a Promotoria de Justiça de "city"? Thanks.

mediamatrix (X) Oct 3, 2009:

@Jorge My reference to the Chilean system was designed to draw attention to the confusion that exists in many LatAM countries between two different services both called 'ministé/erio público', one being the PPS (District Attorney in the US, PPS in the UK) and the other the 'fiscal judicial' (formerly called 'ministerio público' in Chile, but they changed the name to eliminate the confusion). The latter function is concerned with advising the 2nd and 3rd instance courts on matters of public order arising in the cases being heard (especially in family matters). In Chile (but I don't know about Brazil) these people are not part of the PPS - and in some cases they actually sit on the bench alongside the judges...

There is no reason to suppose that adoption proceedings (Asker's question here) will involve the PPS, but the opinion of a fiscal judicial almost certainly will be required because adoption implies public order issues.

The juxtaposition of "Second Instance" with "PPS" seems very incongruent, since the PPS is (necessarily) active at all levels of the legal system; a fiscal judicial, on the other hand, is usually attached to one specific court.