they are offices that mainly deal with the registering and verifying of signatures, giving legal certainty to the proceedings, and charging a fee for the stamping of documents - important to know, the cartórios are each separated into different areas of expertise and legislation, as they all have different legal actions that they can process, meaning that one cartório may be able to stamp one specific type of document, while another would be needed for a different document, or even to verify the first document.

due to the necessity of these processes, and the separation between each cartório, using their services can be a costly and complicated process, and research ahead of time can save both time and frustration, especially for visitors who do not speak portuguese.

these high levels of bureaucracy are not a new thing, in brazil, as it was a tradition brought over by the portuguese, from the first moment that brazil was discovered, through the high value placed on the writing of the notary and registry acts, as well as the property right of various parts of the country.