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A litigant in Hong Kong signed a power of attorney through video conferencing with Qianhai Cooperation People’s Court to endorse a Shenzhen lawyer to represent him in a lawsuit of a contract dispute he has filed with the Qianhai court.

It took the litigant only five minutes to go through the whole formality, which would have been more costly and time-consuming for him to travel to Qianhai for the matter, after the Qianhai court has adopted a new service, which allows online endorsement of legal representatives for litigants involved in cross-border lawsuits.

The Hong Kong litigant, identified as Heung, couldn’t make it to the Qianhai court because of the coronavirus pandemic. But he was able to proceed with the litigation with the new service of the Qianhai court.

The service has been adopted by the Qianhai court authority to serve litigants in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, like Heung, who are unable to go to court in person for litigation proceedings.

The Qianhai court is responsible for the first instance of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-related commercial cases in Shenzhen. The service has been catered to the need of a large number of overseas litigants for a notarized endorsement of legal representatives for their lawsuits at the Qianhai court. According to China's Civil Procedure Law, notarization is required for the authorization of a legal representative.

With the new service, overseas litigants will only need to submit an application to the Qianhai court’s Litigation Service Center for a notarized legal endorsement through video conferencing. The whole authorization process will be recorded and kept by the court free of charge.

This is one of the efforts by the Qianhai court to stabilize the economic development amid the COVID-19 pandemic.