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Custodio Legal

Creating a matter

Custodio Legal

Video tutorials in Spanish

These walkthroughs show the complete flow in the Spanish interface.

There are two ways to open a matter, and both end up in the same file.

Before you start

  • Your practice needs available quota on its plan: an open matter uses it, one on hold or closed does not.

Step by step

  1. From «Matters», click «New matter».
  2. Choose one of the two paths: bring in a matter you already have, or create a new one by hand.

The selector with the two cards: bring in a matter or create a new one

  1. If you choose «Bring in a matter you already have», type the number and click «Look up».
  2. Wait while Custodio asks the judicial source: it can take a couple of minutes, and you can leave the screen open.
  3. Review what the source answered — the court, the parties and the actions it already has — before confirming. Also choose the legal domain, its branch, and the responsible practice member. They start empty because the portal’s free text does not decide your practice’s internal classification.

The filing number broken down into its segments, ready to be looked up against the judicial source

  1. Confirm to create the matter with that data already loaded. The button is enabled after you choose all three active options. If the source doesn’t answer or the number doesn’t show up, you can continue by hand with the same number.
  2. If you choose «Create a new one», say whether the matter is judicial or extrajudicial. Neither is selected for you, and kind-specific fields only appear after you choose one. Both require a description:
    • For a judicial matter, select its legal domain, branch and responsible practice member. The title and filing number are optional.
    • For an extrajudicial matter, enter a title and select the service type. The objective and expected deliverable are optional; the filing number is not shown because it only belongs to judicial matters. Options must be active. Changing the domain clears the branch, so choose it again. No classification or responsible person is selected for you.

The form to create a matter by hand, with the description and the rest of the fields

  1. Tap «Create the matter» to save it. Documents are uploaded afterwards, from the matter itself — see Documents and facts.
  2. To bring in a whole list, open «Import» from «Matters». Review and confirm the load as explained below; acceptance does not mean it has finished.
  3. If it’s an old file you already closed on paper, add it as a historical case from the Archive: it’s born closed and doesn’t use quota.

Finding a client’s cases by name

If you don’t have the list of filing numbers — which is normal on day one — start here. It sits above the filing-number field, on the same import screen.

  1. Type the person’s name or the company’s business name, as the court names it, and pick which of the two it is. At least six letters: a very short criterion brings half the country and the portal refuses it.
  2. Click «Search the portal» and wait. Custodio asks the judicial source and lists the cases with their filing number, court office, parties and the date of the last action.
  3. Tick the ones you want. Cases your practice already watches are flagged and cannot be ticked: you already have them.
  4. Click «Import the N ticked». The filing numbers drop into the field below and follow the usual path: preview and confirm. Searching does not use your plan quota; importing does.
  5. If there is more than one page, «Bring the next page» is another query to the portal. That is why it is a button and not infinite scroll.

Two answers worth telling apart: «no cases for that party» means the portal found nothing under that name — check the spelling — and «the criterion brings too many» means you need to be more specific: the full name, or the exact business name.

This search exists where the country’s portal allows it. In Colombia you search by name and by business name, not by national ID or tax number: the portal does not index by document. In Ecuador it is not available yet. In the Dominican Republic it is: the Poder Judicial’s portal indexes by name, by national ID and -no other portal does this- by representing lawyer. Costa Rica is registered and not offered yet; when it opens, its search by party will be the Archivo Judicial one, which is historical: it returns case files already transferred to the archive, not the state of live proceedings.

Reviewing a filing-number import

  1. Paste one number per line, provide the single-column file offered by the screen, or bring the ones you ticked in the search by name. Do not use the advanced template for a simple list.
  2. Click «See what will happen». This preview creates no matters: it separates new numbers, duplicates in the list, cases the practice already tracks, invalid numbers and entries over the plan limit.
  3. Use «Change the list» to correct it and preview again. Read any judicial-query allowance notice: a load may span several allowance windows rather than finish immediately.
  4. Click «Confirm and bring» with the number of matters you intend to add.
  5. Keep the progress link. Each row has its own status; open its matter when the link appears. Correct a filing number if the row requests it, and read the reason before retrying a failed load that offers a retry.

The advanced Excel template is a different path for information a portal cannot fill in, including matters without filing numbers and historical cases. It is not equivalent to pasting a simple list; follow its own instructions.

How you know it worked

The new matter file opens, with its matter number in the header.

For an import, also review every row’s result. An accepted load or a progress bar that is still running does not confirm all matters were created or synced.

If something goes wrong

What you see What happened What to do
The number doesn’t show up in the source The case isn’t in the portal, or the number has a typo Check it, or continue by hand
«You’re already tracking that case» Your practice already has a matter with that number Open the existing matter instead of creating a duplicate
The source doesn’t answer The judicial portal is slow or down Wait and try again, or continue by hand
No quota for a new matter Your practice reached its plan’s limit of open matters Close a matter or upgrade the plan
«Create the matter» is disabled A required field is missing or options are still loading Complete the fields for the selected kind; if loading fails, use «Try again»
The filing number is valid but a catalog is still loading Custodio read the number but does not have names for every segment yet You can still look it up: the code is preserved and is not marked invalid
Active options are missing No classification, responsible members or service types are available Ask the practice owner for help with configuration or contact support

By country

Colombia uses a filing number (radicado); Ecuador uses a process number; the Dominican Republic uses a Número Único de Caso (NUC), which is national and keeps its dashes; Costa Rica uses its case-file number, which carries the year, the sequential number, the judicial office and the subject matter. Follow your country’s format rather than copying Colombia’s structure for an Ecuadorian process or a Dominican or Costa Rican case file. The result depends on each source’s information and availability.