Relational Quality in Virtual Legal Services: The Limits of Standardization in Digital Transformation

Abstract

The digital transformation of the Brazilian judiciary has been driven by initiatives to computerize court proceedings and establish virtual channels, such as the Electronic Judicial Process and the Justiça 4.0 program, impacting workflows and deadlines. However, the literature on digital government indicates that digitization requires reconfigurations in organizational practices and user interaction that go beyond the mere incorporation of technology. This article analyzes the limits of standardization in virtual judicial services, amid the tension between administrative efficiency and service quality. It is a theoretical-analytical study grounded in the literature on digital transformation in the public sector and in the Judiciary’s regulatory frameworks. It is argued that the standardization of workflows prioritizes operational indicators, such as time and volume, without satisfactorily incorporating dimensions of clarity and appropriateness of responses. This limitation intensifies in contexts that require legal guidance and situational interpretation, in which service is not reduced to the transmission of information. As a contribution, the paper proposes the notion of relational quality, understood as the institutional capacity to produce responses that are comprehensible and tailored to the context of the requests. It concludes that the effectiveness of virtual service requires that operational efficiency be complemented by relational quality, ensuring institutional responses that are appropriate to users’ needs.