TJSP
São Paulo State Court (TJSP)
Search São Paulo state court (TJSP) cases by Brazilian CPF in 60s. Largest court in Brazil — 25% of nationwide caseload via ESAJ, both trial and appeals instances. Free signup credits.
- State
- São Paulo
- Region
- Sudeste
- Supported systems
- ESAJ
- Instances
- Trial and appeals
Advertised coverage. Sealed cases are not accessed.
Open official portalThe São Paulo State Court (TJSP) is the largest state court in Brazil by case volume — handling roughly 25% of all active Brazilian lawsuits on its own. It covers every 1st and 2nd instance judicial action across the 645 municipalities of São Paulo state, spanning civil, criminal, family, business, tax and small-claims courts. Individual queries go through the ESAJ portal; bulk queries require an API.
TJSP at a glance
- Over 25 million active cases (the largest judicial backlog in Brazil)
- 645 comarcas covering the entire state of São Paulo
- Around 2,700 active judges and 40,000 court staff
- ESAJ system in place since 2008 — 1st and 2nd instance on a single portal
- About 7 million new cases filed per year on average
- Electronic-filing rate above 99% for civil actions
TJSP lawsuit search by CPF
NNN.NNN.NNN-NN and solve the CAPTCHA — ESAJ requires CAPTCHA on every document-based search, an anti-scraping mechanism by Softplan. The system returns up to 50 cases per page, covering all 645 São Paulo state comarcas (including São Paulo capital, Campinas, Santos, Ribeirão Preto, São José dos Campos, Sorocaba, etc.). For complete due diligence you need TWO searches: one at /cpopg for 1st instance and another at /cposg for 2nd — ESAJ does not consolidate automatically. Above 10 CPFs per day, manual queries become a bottleneck: the Vigilant API consolidates 1st and 2nd instance in one call, solves the CAPTCHA automatically and returns the full case history as structured JSON for R$ 0.10 per queried court.How to search lawsuits at TJSP
Via the Vigilant API, a single REST call with a CPF returns the court's cases as structured JSON. You can also query through the web dashboard or via Google Sheets.
- 1
Access the TJSP ESAJ portal
Open https://esaj.tjsp.jus.br/cpopg/open.do in your browser. This is the official 1st-instance case search page. For 2nd instance, use /cposg/open.do. No registration or login is required for public queries.
- 2
Select "Search by Party Name" or "by Document (CPF/CNPJ)"
Searching by CPF is the most practical for audit and due diligence — it returns every case where the CPF appears as a party (plaintiff, defendant, interested third party, etc.), regardless of the forum. Name search requires exact spelling.
- 3
Enter the CPF with mask (NNN.NNN.NNN-NN) and solve the CAPTCHA
ESAJ requires a CAPTCHA on every document-based search — an anti-scraping mechanism. The field accepts formatted CPF or digits only. If the CAPTCHA fails, reload the page.
- 4
Review the returned case list
TJSP returns up to 50 cases per page, with CNJ number, class, subject, forum and parties. Click each row to access the full record (movements, filings, decisions, and timeline).
- 5
For bulk due diligence, use the Vigilant API
Manual queries become infeasible above 10-20 CPFs/day. Vigilant maintains a 2-day cache and performs the scraping transparently, returning the same structured payload (parties, movements, subjects) as JSON — starting at R$ 0.10 per queried court.
TJSP foros, comarcas, and jurisdiction
TJSP organizes its jurisdiction across foros, comarcas and specialized chambers. Understanding this structure helps interpret case-search results and locate specific cases.
Main foros in São Paulo capital:
- Foro Central Cível — address: Praça João Mendes, S/N, Centro. Concentrates high-value civil cases involving companies headquartered in the expanded downtown. Massive case volume — ~30% of capital total.
- Foro Central Criminal Barra Funda — address: Av. Marquês de São Vicente, 235. Crimes against public treasury, organized crime, money laundering. Tribunal do Júri (jury trials) at Barra Funda.
- Foro João Mendes (Family) — divorces, partition, alimony, custody.
- Foro das Execuções Fiscais Municipais — IPTU, ISS, fee enforcement.
- Regional Foros (Lapa, Penha, Pinheiros, Santo Amaro, etc.) — distribute cases by defendant/property/contract neighborhood.
Inland comarcas with highest volume:
- Campinas — second largest comarca. Heavy in corporate and environmental law (agribusiness).
- São José dos Campos — disputes involving major aerospace (Embraer, Boeing) and tech firms.
- Ribeirão Preto — agribusiness (sugarcane, coffee, soy), farms, rural contracts.
- Santos — maritime law, port contracts, customs.
- Bauru, Sorocaba, São José do Rio Preto, Presidente Prudente — relevant regional comarcas.
TJSP jurisdiction by area (all appear in CPF-based search):
- Cível — contracts, damages, leases, condominiums, civil liability.
- Criminal — crimes against property, life, honor, state tax order.
- Family & Inheritance — divorce, alimony, partition, inventory, common-law marriage.
- Corporate — judicial reorganization, bankruptcy, partnership dissolution, arbitration.
- State Public Treasury — tax enforcement of ICMS, IPVA, ITCMD; actions against the state.
- Municipal Public Treasury — tax enforcement of IPTU, ISS; actions against municipalities.
- Small-Claims Civil Courts (JEC) — up to 40 minimum wages (attorney optional below 20 MW).
- Public Treasury Small Claims — up to 60 MW against state/municipality.
- Children & Youth — custody, adoption, juvenile offenses, institutional shelters.
- Specialized Chambers (2nd instance) — Civil Chambers (1st to 38th), Criminal Chambers, Private Law Section, Public Law Section, Special Chamber.
1st vs 2nd instance — practical differences:
The 1st instance (URL /cpopg/) includes all cases in initial proceedings — the judge rules based on evidence. The 2nd instance (/cposg/) has appeals: ordinary appeals, interlocutory appeals, motions. A case appears in both if appealed. For risk due diligence on a CPF, both are relevant: 2nd instance reveals disputes at appeal level (likely higher value or complexity), and 1st reveals new and ongoing cases.
TJSP-specific search peculiarities:
- CPF homonymy — São Paulo concentrates ~46 million residents. Homonyms are common. CPF is always more precise than name for unique identification.
- Retroactive digitization — TJSP migrated pre-2008 physical cases to ESAJ throughout the 2010s. Today, ~99% of cases are electronic.
- Variable performance — ESAJ is unstable in early business hours (8am-10am) and on major-decision publication days. Off-peak queries (10pm-6am Brasília time) tend to be faster.
- Sealed cases — cases under sealing (sensitive family, crimes against minors, some labor) do NOT appear in public search. Access only through appointed attorney via digital certificate.
Local quirks & calendar
TJSP suspends procedural deadlines on São Paulo state holidays: July 9th (Constitutionalist Revolution), in addition to national holidays. The forensic recess follows the national standard (Dec 20 to Jan 20). Some inland comarcas have their own calendar for municipal patron saints — check the TJSP official calendar before filing critical deadlines. ESAJ tends to be unstable in early morning hours and on major-decision publication days — queries during low-traffic windows (10 PM to 6 AM Brasília time) are recommended when possible.
Manual portal vs Vigilant API
| Aspect | Manual portal | Vigilant API |
|---|---|---|
| Time per query | 5-10 min (with CAPTCHA) | ~60s (automated) |
| Bulk queries | Infeasible above 20/day | No practical limit |
| Cost | Staff cost | R$ 0.10 per court |
| Returned data | HTML, visual | Structured JSON |
| Cache | None | 2 days (configurable) |
| System integration | Manual copy-paste | REST API + webhook |
Who queries TJSP
Related tools
Free utilities to validate CPF, decode CNJ numbers, and more before you call the API.
Related guides
Deeper reading on topics that matter for TJSP queries.
ESAJ vs PJE 2026: Which Brazilian Courts Use Each + Unified API
ESAJ covers 7 Brazilian states, PJE covers 13. Learn which system each court uses and query all 24 courts with a single API call.
Brazilian lawsuit search by CPF: how to query court cases across 10 states
Practical guide to searching lawsuits by CPF across Brazilian courts. State coverage, real costs, time, LGPD compliance, and how to automate high-volume queries. Updated April 2026.
Automate Brazilian Lawsuit Search: Law Firm Guide 2026 (R$0.10)
3 ways to automate CPF lookup at a Brazilian law firm: API, no-code, spreadsheet. R$0.10 per court. OAB + LGPD compliant.
Frequently asked questions about TJSP
The TJSP ESAJ portal (esaj.tjsp.jus.br) offers free search by CPF, CNPJ or name. You must solve a CAPTCHA on every query and accept that data is returned as HTML (not structured). For up to 20 queries/day, the portal is enough. Above that, the Vigilant API is more efficient — the first 5 credits are free and it scales to thousands of queries/day.
Yes — Vigilant queries both TJSP instances in a single API call and returns consolidated results. On the manual ESAJ portal, you need two separate searches: /cpopg/open.do for 1st instance and /cposg/open.do for 2nd instance (Recursal Panels / Chambers).
TJSP uses ESAJ (Judicial Automation System) exclusively, developed by Softplan. It is one of 7 Brazilian state courts on ESAJ — the others are TJAC, TJAL, TJAM, TJBA, TJCE and TJMS. TJSP has NOT migrated to PJE (Electronic Judicial Process) and there are no announced migration plans.
Yes — TJSP ESAJ covers every jurisdiction: civil, criminal, family, commercial, small claims (JEC), tax enforcement, public treasury, children/youth, and specialized 2nd-instance chambers. Vigilant returns cases from all these areas without filtering — you get the complete CPF history and filter afterward.
Not through the public portal. Sealed cases (sensitive family, crimes against minors, specific labor cases) are only visible to the parties, appointed attorneys, and the Public Prosecutor's Office via digital certificate authentication. Vigilant API also does not return sealed case content — this is a legal limitation, not technical.
For a CPF linked to São Paulo business activity (corporate partner), it's common to see 50-200 cases covering commercial, labor and tax matters. Individuals without business activity average 0-10 cases. Vigilant returns everything — parties, full movement history, subjects and case value — in a single 10-200 KB JSON payload.
Digitally filed cases become visible on ESAJ within 24h of filing. Physical cases (extremely rare today) take up to 5 days for digitization and indexing. Vigilant respects this latency — cases not yet indexed by TJSP will not appear in Vigilant queries either.
Yes, through the ESAJ portal with authentication (OAB attorney or cidadão.br). Non-sealed filings from electronic cases are available as PDF. Vigilant returns movement metadata (date, type, description) but does not download PDF filings — to download specific filings, use ESAJ directly or integrate with Vigilant's own filing system (available on the Enterprise plan).
Yes — Vigilant offers continuous monitoring (release 2.1) with frequencies of 6h, 12h, daily or weekly. You register the CPF once and receive email + webhook alerts whenever new cases appear against that CPF on TJSP (or any of the 12 covered courts). Ideal for fintech compliance, supplier auditing and ongoing M&A.
TJSP provides access to DataJud (maintained by CNJ, not by the court), but it is an aggregated base used for statistics — it does not replace operational queries. There is no official TJSP REST API for individual case search. Scraping ESAJ via Vigilant is currently the most stable and legal way to obtain this data programmatically.
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