Originally Posted by RalphJ

A word of advice Rob....make certain you specify to your brazilian lawyer exactly what his responsibilities are, step by step. Some lawyers here in Brazil are under the assumption that their fees are simply for making a contract of buy and sell, or promise of buy and sell, instead of doing all the due diligence required, such as making certain the land is free and clear, etc.

We ran into this problem years ago and afterwards discovered that it's not an uncommon problem here in Brazil. An agent is legally responsible for showing that the land or property is "free and clear" but in many cases when one hires a lawyer the agent assumes that the lawyer is going to do that, and vice-versa.