Limits and possibilities for the development of public health research in the legal system

OBJECTIVE: To characterize databases of the courts of justice of Brazil as a potential tool for research in Collective Health, in its interface with the legal sciences. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of quantitative and descriptive nature, focusing on analysis of strategic management and judicial systems. RESULTS: Databases used by the Common Justice in the Federation Units to systematize judicial processes were identified and analyzed. A total of 123 databases were found in the courts of justice per state, with emphasis on the South and Northeast regions, in contrast to the North region, which has a smaller number of systems. This large number of judicial systems limits access to legal operators, and hinders the collection of evidence by health researchers and, consequently, impacts the strategic management of the Executive Branch. There were limitations from design to transparent and democratic data extraction by the users themselves, as well as restricted integration between bases. CONCLUSIONS: Although advances have been made in recent years by the courts of justice to unify these databases, the multiplicity of information systems used in the Common State Justice complicates the management of knowledge, limits the development of research, even when carried out by lawyers or researchers in the legal area, as well as generates slow data extraction for public management. It is recognized the need for additional efforts for standardization, as well as for improvement of these databases, expanding access, transparency and integration with a view to a transdisciplinary look between the field of Law and Collective Health.