Internet-based court services are now being offered by the Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court to resolve legal disputes for individuals and enterprises, helping them resume work and production during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We’ve put all litigation services online, founded on the construction of a smart court,” said Judge Zheng Song, the person in charge of the litigation service center of the Qianhai court. “The move aims to uphold the rights of all parties.”
According to Zheng, between Feb. 3 and March 30, the court has accepted 1,782 cases online and received about 2,870 inquiries online and through the court’s internet hotline.
Thanks to the smart court platform, 382 of the 1,782 accepted cases have been heard online and 345 cases have been resolved through mediation, which has also been made available online since Feb. 3. The online court hearings have been standardized with detailed rules worked out on the hearing procedure such as the delivery of electronic court papers and the exchanges of proofs.
“I am able to work from my office or home in Hong Kong with the online platform,” said Xu Jing, a mediator from Hong Kong hired by the court’s diversified dispute resolution center. “I can browse the mediation cases by logging into my resolution center account and start mediating. It is very convenient.”
During the pandemic outbreak, the Qianhai court also rolled out 23 measures to further improve its litigation service system and the business environment of the free trade area, as well as help enterprises get back to work.
The court has set up special teams to handle cases relating to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan matters, the free trade area and labor disputes.
In addition, legal risk prevention guidelines on 18 sectors such as finance, intellectual property, foreign investment and trade have also been released jointly by the court and legal service institutions, including Qianhai Belt and Road Legal Services Federation to provide legal advice for enterprises in the key industries of the area.
“The court should play its judicial role to create a fair environment for the healthy and orderly development of the economy in Qianhai while still fighting the pandemic,” said Wu Youbin, vice president of the Qianhai court.
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