Guide · Ecuador
How to look up a case in the eSATJE, step by step
What the system is, how to read a case number, what the official lookup returns and what it doesn't. Updated in September 2026.
What 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, 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).
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: plaintiff or injured party, and defendant or accused. If you have the number, that search is always the one that returns the least noise.
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.
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.
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.
See how automatic monitoring worksFrequently 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.
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.
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. Create your free account, no card.