Removal of quotas for courts sees cases soar
Print Edition
RULES introduced earlier in the year that mean Chinese courts can no longer refuse to accept new lawsuits has been a major step forward for the country’s legal reforms.
In the past, courts, facing annual targets for completed cases, were reluctant to accept new ones they felt had little chance of processing before the yearend.
Annual case clearance rates used to be very important in courts’ annual assessments, but in January, state authorities brought an end to such quotas in a bid designed to eliminate “unreasonable assessment criteria.”
In May, the government streamlined the process for filing lawsuits, requiring courts to accept them whenever they are filed.
“Courts must accept cases that should be handled according to the law, and no unit or individual may obstruct them for any reason,” the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said at the time.
The moves, which are now bearing fruit, were designed to better protect people’s legitimate litigation rights.
The People’s Court in Weng’an County, Guizhou Province, for instance, accepted 676 cases between October 21 and November 21, an increase of 85 percent from the same period of last year.
Similarly, anticipating a surge in the number of cases, the People’s Court in Yuepuhu County of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region promised to complete the filing process within 30 minutes.
In the first nine months of the year, courts across the country registered more than 6.2 million cases, an increase of 32 percent on the same period of 2014.
SPC spokesperson Sun Jungong said last month that the new filing system has made people “feel” the progress made in the country’s judicial system reform.
Though the rule change has heaped pressure on judges and aggravated the problem of inadequate resources, the SPC said it will come down hard on any court that turns down cases without reason.
“Despite the challenges, the public’s rights should not be hampered under any circumstances,” he said.
The SPC has urged local courts to help themselves deal with the extra workload by improving efficiency and establishing online platforms for case filing.
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