Electronic Court Cases in Brazil: How to Follow Your Case Without Leaving Home

This page is a translation of the original Portuguese text, provided for convenience. It deals with Brazilian law. If there is any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails. Read the original in Portuguese

The digital transformation of Brazil’s Judicial Branch has put cases, deadlines, and court notifications just a few taps away. It also requires citizens to learn a new set of skills to keep track of their own rights. Knowing how to check a case’s progress, read an electronic court notification, and respond on time has become essential to defending any interest brought before the courts.

What Brazil’s Digital Court Systems Are

Paper case files are no longer the rule in Brazil. Today, nearly all lawsuits proceed in an electronic environment governed by Law 11.419/2006, which authorized the use of digital means in all levels of the court system. This means that petitions, decisions, expert reports, and judgments now exist as digitally signed files, accessible over the internet at any hour.

Each court uses its own system, although they all serve the same purpose. The most widely used are PJe (the Electronic Judicial Proceeding system), used by the Labor Courts, by many state courts, and by the Federal Courts; eproc (the Electronic Proceeding system), found in federal regional courts and in state courts in southern Brazil; and Projudi (the Digital Judicial Proceeding system), used by some state courts. The differences lie in the screens and navigation, not in the substance.

For you, the practical lesson is simple. Before looking for information, work out which branch of the courts is handling the case (state, federal, labor, or electoral) and which system that court uses. Doing so keeps you from searching the wrong platforms and saves precious time when a deadline is running.

How to Check a Case’s Progress, Deadlines, and Documents

Public lookup is the first tool available. As a rule, you just go to the website of the court in charge, find the case search option, and enter the unified case number, a twenty-digit number standardized by the National Council of Justice. This number is the lawsuit’s identity, and it follows the case through every level of jurisdiction.

When a case is not under seal (segredo de justiça, a restriction that limits access to the parties and their lawyers), its activity is visible to anyone. You can see the date the case was assigned, the judge’s orders, the decisions, and the chronological list of acts, known as the docket (andamento). Access to the full text of the filings, such as petitions and attached documents, usually requires registration or a profile linked to the case.

Deadlines deserve extra attention. The system records the date of each publication, and the statutory count begins from that date. In electronic cases, deadlines run in business days for civil and labor procedural acts under the Code of Civil Procedure, and a notification is deemed made on the first business day after you access it or after the statutory reading period ends.

Keeping copies of your documents is a precaution that spares you trouble. Most systems let you download the filings as files with an authenticity record. Keeping these files organized helps you understand how the case is developing and makes the work easier for a professional if you later seek legal help.

Ordinary citizens are likely to become familiar with this model as well, as the platform expands and reaches more categories of recipients.

Electronic Court Notification and the Electronic Judicial Domicile

An intimação, or court notification, is the act by which the courts communicate something to a party or to the party’s lawyer, whether it is a decision, a hearing, or the opening of a period to respond. In the digital environment, it no longer arrives by mail or in a printed gazette. It now takes place inside the court systems, through electronic dashboards and official communication platforms.

One of the most important new developments is the Electronic Judicial Domicile (Domicílio Judicial Eletrônico), a national platform coordinated by the National Council of Justice to bring all of the Judiciary’s communications together at a single digital address. The tool allows individuals and legal entities to receive service of process and court notifications in one place, reducing the risk that a communication will go unnoticed across scattered systems.

Article 246 of the Code of Civil Procedure already establishes a preference for service of process by electronic means, and larger public and private companies are required to keep their registration up to date to receive these acts. Ordinary citizens are likely to become familiar with this model as well, as the platform expands and reaches more categories of recipients.

There is an important legal difference between service of process (citação) and notification (intimação). Service of process summons someone to take part in a case for the first time, usually as a defendant. Notification communicates acts as the case moves forward. Confusing the two concepts can cost you procedural opportunities, because each one triggers different deadlines and burdens for the person who receives it.

What to Do When You Receive an Electronic Court Notification

The first step when you receive an electronic communication is to verify that it is authentic. Official communications come from the institutional addresses of the courts or of the national platform, and they always refer to a case number that you can verify through public lookup. Messages that demand immediate payment through suspicious links, or that threaten instant arrest, should raise a red flag for fraud.

Once you have confirmed where it came from, read the act carefully. The notification usually states what was decided, what is expected of the party, and the deadline to respond. Writing down the final date right away is essential, because silence in a case has consequences, such as preclusion, which is the loss of the chance to take a particular action after the deadline has passed.

Next, gather the documents related to the case and organize the facts in chronological order. This material is the basis for any response, and it lets you assess clearly whether there are grounds to appeal, to contest, or to comply with what was ordered. The more complete your body of evidence, the stronger your defense tends to be.

Additional Care with Passwords and Access

Full access to the systems depends, in many cases, on a digital certificate or login credentials. The certificate works as an electronic signature with legal validity and is required for acts such as filing petitions. Simply checking a case’s progress, when the case is public, usually requires no identification at all, only the case number.

Protecting your credentials is a security measure that is inseparable from protecting your own rights. Passwords should not be shared, and a digital certificate should be kept as carefully as personal identification documents. If third parties misuse these tools, the integrity of filings made in the holder’s name can be compromised.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I find out which system my case is in?

The main reference is the court with jurisdiction over the case. If the dispute is a labor matter, the system is probably PJe. If it is in a state court, it may be eproc or Projudi, depending on the state. The unified twenty-digit case number identifies the court of origin and lets you find the correct platform on that court’s official website.

I received an electronic court notification, but I don’t know if it’s real. What should I do?

Verification starts with the source of the message and the existence of the case. Legitimate communications refer to a case number that you can check through the court’s public lookup, and they do not ask for payment through stray links. If you have any doubt about authenticity, the safe course is to go directly to the courts’ official website, without clicking on addresses received in a message.

I missed a deadline because I didn’t see the notification in time. Can I still act?

Missing a deadline can result in preclusion, but it does not always end your options. In specific situations, the law allows you to show just cause (justa causa), when the failure was caused by an event beyond the party’s control. Each case depends on a technical analysis of the circumstances and the procedural stage, which is why an individual assessment of the facts is essential before reaching any conclusion.

As informações deste artigo são de caráter informativo e não substituem consulta jurídica individualizada. Cada caso possui particularidades que exigem análise específica.