Guide · Ecuador
eSATJE (SATJE): judicial case lookup in Ecuador
Look up a case on the official portal by case number, by ID card (cédula) or by first and last names. The public lookup is free and does not require an account.
Open the official case lookupWill you check it often? Paste your number and we'll tell you when it moves. Notify me when it changes
Look up your case nowWhat the eSATJE is and what it is for
SATJE is Ecuador's automatic judicial procedure system: the tool the Judicial Function uses to manage cases and the one anybody can use to look them up. Its online version, the eSATJE —also written e-SATJE—, centralizes cases from the whole country in civil, criminal, labor, traffic, family, violence and administrative matters, among others.
The public lookup lives at procesosjudiciales.funcionjudicial.gob.ec and costs nothing: the Función Judicial (Ecuador's judiciary) publishes that looking up judicial proceedings in Ecuador is free and does not require an account (funcionjudicial.gob.ec, checked on 8 September 2026).
Open the official eSATJE case lookup
For a lawyer, the lookup answers two different questions: what happened in a case already on the desk, and whether a case exists against a person or a company nobody knew about. Both use the same form and the same fields; what changes is the way in.
How to read a case number
The Ecuadorian case number is not a loose counter: every segment says something, and knowing what it says saves half the typing mistakes. This is its shape.
PPCCJ-YYYY-NNNNN
PP — the province
Two digits identifying the province where the case was filed. It is the system's first filter and the one most often mistyped when the number is copied from a badly wrapped email.
CC — the canton
Two more digits, for the canton inside that province. Province and canton together place the case before the year is even read.
J — the judicial unit
One to three digits identifying the judicial unit hearing the case. It is the variable-length part of the prefix, which is why the full prefix is at least five digits long.
YYYY — the year
The four digits of the year the case came in. Always in full: 2026, not 26.
NNNNN — the sequential
Five digits, zero-padded, for the order in which the case came in that year in that unit. Sequential 42 is written 00042.
A mistyped number almost never fails with a clear error: it fails by returning somebody else's case, or none at all. That is why it pays to check the three segments before concluding that a proceeding does not exist.
The lookup, step by step
These are the steps the Judicial Council itself publishes, with what is worth looking at in each one.
Open the case lookup portal
The address is procesosjudiciales.funcionjudicial.gob.ec. Any desktop or phone browser works, and there is no account to create and no session to start.
Choose the type of search
The form allows searching by case number or by the parties —with their ID card (cédula) or their first and last names—: plaintiff or injured party, and defendant or accused. If you have the number, that search is always the one that returns the least noise; if all you have is the cédula, there is the guide to the lookup by cédula.
Enter the data in full
With the number, all three segments go in complete and with their hyphens. With a name, write it exactly as it appears on the ID: the system searches the string, not the person, and a dropped second surname changes the result.
Review the list of results
The list shows the matching cases with their number, filing date, subject matter and judicial unit. With a search by name it is normal for several namesakes to appear: the party's ID number is what tells them apart.
Open the case detail
The detail opens the case record: province, canton, subject matter, judicial unit, type of action and the parties. It is the screen where you actually confirm the case is the one you were looking for.
Read the judicial filings
Inside the detail is the list of filings with their dates and, when the judicial unit attached them, the documents: orders, decrees and records. That list is the one that changes over time and the one you have to come back to.
Look up your case here
Custodio asks the court portal for you, so it can take a few seconds. We ask you for no name, no email and no account: what the lookup leaves behind is a single record, deleted two hours later. How we handle this lookup
The Ecuadorian lookup reads the case in the Judiciary's eSATJE: it tells you what the last action was and when, never the text of the ruling.
This video is narrated in Spanish only; the transcript below is in English.
The video was recorded on the Uruguay guide; on this guide the steps are the same, with this country’s case number and portal.
Read the video transcript
This guide explains how to look up a case file at the Judiciary of Uruguay. First, the site asks about cookies: choose what you prefer.
Inside the guide there is a search box. Type the case number in the format the country uses; here we use a sample case file.
Custodio checks that a person is making the lookup before it goes out to ask. It does not ask for an email or a password, and it does not keep the number you typed.
Look it up. Custodio asks the court portal on your behalf, so it can take a few seconds.
This is what the portal publishes today: the court, the parties and the latest action with its date. The parties appear as initials, because nobody has identified themselves here yet.
At the bottom it says how far this country's lookup reaches. Read it before drawing conclusions: the Uruguayan lookup runs one business day behind and does not cover criminal matters.
Looking once is looking once. With a free account you can put that case file under watch: Custodio checks the portal every day for you and alerts you when a new action appears.
What the lookup returns
A case looked up by number returns, when the system has it complete, this:
- The identification of the proceeding: case number, filing date, subject matter and type of action or offense.
- The judicial unit hearing the case, with its province and canton.
- The parties: plaintiff or injured party, defendant or accused, and who represents them.
- The list of judicial filings, with the date of each one and the name of the order.
- The documents attached to those filings, when the judicial unit uploaded them to the system.
Paste your case number and we'll flag every new move
We watch the eSATJE for you: an alert the moment there is a new filing, no more checking by hand. With each one, the AI updates the matter status; it drafts the reply when you ask.
Create your free accountManual lookup and monitoring solve different jobs
The official lookup is for checking a case now. Monitoring helps when several cases require their filings to be checked again.
| Manual official lookup | Case monitoring |
|---|---|
| Look up a case by number or by the parties on the official portal. | Organize the cases a practice needs to review in one place. |
| Shows filings published at the time of the lookup. | Highlights new filings since the last review with the source in view. |
| Requires coming back and checking every case when updates are needed. | Reduces repeated review across a portfolio of cases. |
What the official lookup does not do
The portal is complete for what exists, and it is worth knowing where it ends.
- It does not warn you. There is no email, no notification and no subscription to a case: whoever wants to hear about a new filing has to come back and look.
- It does not keep your list. Every lookup starts from scratch, so carrying twenty cases means typing twenty numbers each time.
- It does not show what is under seal. Cases with legal confidentiality do not appear in the public lookup.
- It does not compute deadlines. It shows the date of each filing; counting the term from it is still the lawyer's work.
The first two limits are the ones that get expensive with volume: the portal neither warns nor remembers, so hearing in time depends on somebody logging in every day. That is exactly the part that can be automated.
Frequently asked questions about the case lookup
Does the case lookup cost anything?
No. The public eSATJE lookup is free, and the Judicial Council publishes it as such (funcionjudicial.gob.ec, checked on 8 September 2026).
Do I need to create an account?
Not to look a case up: the portal answers any visitor. Online filings with the Judicial Function are a different matter and do require identification.
Are SATJE, eSATJE and e-SATJE the same thing?
They name the same thing from two sides. SATJE is the system the Judicial Function uses to process cases; the eSATJE, also written e-SATJE, is its public online lookup, at procesosjudiciales.funcionjudicial.gob.ec. That is the address this guide links to.
Can I look a case up by ID card (cédula)?
Yes. The same eSATJE form searches by case number, by cédula or by first and last names. With the cédula it is worth searching from both sides, as plaintiff and as defendant, because the system keeps the two roles apart.
Why doesn't a case that exists show up?
There are three usual reasons: the number is wrong in one of its three segments, the case is under legal confidentiality and is not published, or the filing has not been recorded in the system yet. Before concluding that it does not exist, it is worth repeating the search by the parties.
How often is the information updated?
The Judicial Function publishes that the system is updated permanently, in line with the records of the jurisdictional bodies nationwide (funcionjudicial.gob.ec, checked on 8 September 2026). In practice, a filing appears when the judicial unit records it, not when it is issued.
Can I look it up from here?
Yes. This page has a lookup: paste the case number and we query eSATJE for you, with no account and at no cost. You will see the court, the latest action with its date and the parties reduced to initials; the whole case is read in the official lookup this guide links to, or inside your account. And if you want us to tell you the day the case moves, you create a free account from the result.
Looking a case up is easy. Remembering every day is not.
Custodio Legal checks the system for each of your cases every day and tells you when a new action appears, with the source next to it. The AI turns each update into matter status and draft, and answers questions about your documents. Create your free account, no card.