Court cases surge after filing reform
Changes aim to remove unnecessary barriers and protect the rights of litigants to appeal
Changes making it easier to file lawsuits have led to a huge increase in court cases over the past four months, especially administrative ones, according to an official with China’s top court.
The changes have helped to reduce criticism that it was too difficult to take legal action in Chinese courts, the official said.
Under a guideline issued by the Supreme People’s Court in May, cases must be accepted when they are registered, rather than after a preliminary review of their merits, said Li Shaoping, vice-president of the court.
Courts also are required to respond to litigants promptly, with the aim of avoiding situations in which some courts ignored claims or refused to consider disputes, Li said.
“We want to remove unnecessary barriers in filing a case and protect litigants’ rights to appeal,” Li said. “It’s a key enforcement to judicial reforms put forward by the Chinese leadership to fulfill the rule of law in 2013.”
The number of cases filed has increased dramatically since the changes were made.
From May 1, when the guideline took effect, to Sept 29, Chinese courts accepted more than 7 million cases, including 216,626 administrative ones, according to the top court.
In May and June, courts accepted 1.13 million cases, an increase of 29 percent year-onyear. Nearly 30,000 involved administrative disputes, an increase of more than 200 percent year-on-year, Li said.
Previously, people had com- plained that it was too difficult to sue a government department. However, these problems were being eased with enforcement of the guideline, Li added.
Administrative cases have mainly centered on demolition work in property development projects and disputes between employees and employers.
Cases asking government departments to disclose information have risen in recent years, according to the top court.
Lin Jinbiao, a judge sitting on an administrative tribunal under Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court, said making it easier to file cases could improve the court’s public image and remove administrative interference to some extent.
“In the past, some local government departments interfered with courts’ case filings,” Lin said.
If litigants meet the qualification requirements and provide sufficient evidence, courts must file a case immediately. If a case requires a review and there are insufficient documents, courts must reply to litigants with an explanation within seven days, according to the guideline.
More than 1,200 administrative cases have been filed to Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court this year, “much more than before and requiring us to work overtime to deal with them,” Lin said.
Ying Songnian, a Chinese administrative law veteran at China University of Political Science and Law, praised the new guideline, but said “administrative cases are still too hard to win and we need to think more about this”.
Jiang Yangbing was a judge at an intermediate people’s court in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, until June last year, when he quit his post because of stressful working conditions and concerns about new guidelines related to independent verdicts.
The 33-year-old lawyer said a number of cases related to administrative procedures or property disputes had left him with the double challenge of trying to quell dissent that could have sparked a mass incident, such as public protests, while also combating interference from the government departments involved.
“I was so worried when the litigants argued or even fought in front of me. It always upset me. I was desperate to escape,” he said.
Jiang resigned just a month before the July implementation of a series of pilot programs to reform the judiciary, initiated by the central leadership in 2013.
He is the tip of an iceberg: Since January, 50 judges have voluntarily left the Shanghai judicial system, according to reports in Yangcheng Evening News. The resignations followed the departures of 105 judicial officers, including 86 judges, in the city last year, a rise of 90 percent from 2013.
Mu Ping, president of the Beijing High People’s Court, confirmed the talent drain, saying that more than 500 legal officers in the capital have resigned in the past five years.
Some insiders accepted that more judges will resign as the reform process deepens, but insisted that the changes will prove beneficial in the long run.
He Xiaorong, director of the Judicial Reform Office under the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top court, said the pain caused by the process will be temporary, and urged judicial officials to view the reforms through a long lens.
In September, President Xi Jinping ratified higher salaries for court officials and prosecutors, and also signed off on new administrative procedures to ensure greater independence for judges and legal officers and challenge the widely held misconception that they are little more than low-level civil servants.
Zhang Xiaojin, a judge at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, said reform always impinges on someone’s interests, “but I strongly feel that the aim is to provide us (legal officials) with more protection and benefits. That’s why I intend to stay in my post.
“I’ve witnessed the achievements fostered by the reforms, including the setting up of the IP court last year, which has made the conduct of cases more professional,” he said. “I’ ll carry on, and I hope the reforms will prove positive and successful.”
Independent oversight
In 2009, Jiang, who is quitting, was excited to be appointed as a full judge, qualified to oversee disputes independently. The promotion meant he was freed from the constraints of the “judicial panel” system, under which a team of judges who may not have even been present in court presided over verdicts and sentencing.
However, a year later he found himself deeply depressed because of interference by litigants, who often refused to accept his verdicts and lobbied against them, and, occasionally, from governmental departments that pushed for retrials if they were dissatisfied with the outcomes of cases.
“That interference made it hard for me to do my job properly,” he said. “Some litigants didn’t understand the law and attempted to overturn my verdicts by threatening and harassing me.
“I was concerned that the litigants’ extreme behavior could spark a mass incident, but the worst thing was that I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I was deeply concerned about my personal security, and I was also being pressured by some government departments that were unhappy with my rulings.”
Lin Jinbiao, a judge at the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court, said that he was pleased to see that measures to eliminate outside interference are among the top priorities of the reform.
The top court now requires every court to collate and record all evidence and legal advice submitted during cases as a means of maintaining impartiality and ensuring independent verdicts.
“It is progress, but outside interference is a stubborn disease in our courts. It will be difficult to cure, but we’ ll just have to follow developments and see if the new rules are effective. After all, independent assessment of cases is the key to ensuring fair verdicts,” Lin said.
More cases, fewer judges
In May, China’s courts adopted a new system of accepting appeals. Before the reforms, appeals were assessed by a panel that then either accepted or rejected the case, but now litigants can register their suits without prior review. The result has been an explosion in the number of cases, further increasing the pressures on judges.
Jiang Ying, a chief judge at the Beijing IP court, said the large number of new cases means her working day has been extended, and she often works in her chambers until after midnight. The workload has left her exhausted and concerned about the accuracy of her judgments. “Working overtime adds an element of potluck for me,” she said.
“Before the reforms, I heard 60 cases a year, but this year I’ve already ruled on more than 50 disputes. It’s an honor to hear cases in the court because it was set up in November to make IP trials more professional, but the number of disputes is beyond expectation. That’s making life a struggle for the limited number of judges employed by the court,” she said.
The reforms established a quota for top judges to ensure they receive assistance that frees them from administrative and research work, and helps them to produce impartial, well-considered judgments. Some critics have complained that the quota has drastically reduced the number of judges on the bench, while case numbers soar. The IP court in Beijing has 25 judges, but by Aug 20, it had accepted 6,595 cases.
Zhang Xiaojin, a chief judge at the court, said the seemingly endless number of cases has increased the judges’ workloads, resulting in delays and leaving litigants in legal limbo as they await verdicts. “I’m 45. It’s hard for me to stay up to work late,” she said.
She has been heartened by the creation of a new post — legal assistant — which will see junior lawyers, many of them prospective judges, shouldering some of the burden. They will prepare case notes, conduct research, offer legal advice and draft, but not decide on, verdicts.
“Assistants will improve the efficiency of court hearings because they will handle administrative and related matters, and that will take the pressure off the judges to some extent,” Zhang Xiaojin said.
“In the long run, the assistants’ work will be invaluable to the court, and it’s good for young judicial officials to gain experience before they are given the right to hear cases themselves. The move will help the judges conclude disputes more quickly,” she said.
“The burdens imposed by the rapid rise in the number of cases will be temporary,” she added. “I’d like to see the new mode of working result in more-efficient resolution of cases.”
High expectations, low pay
Last year, Zhang Wei resigned his post as a judge in Beijing. He was unhappy with new rules that require judges to accept lifelong responsibility for the verdicts they hand down. The changes — intended to ensure that judges consider cases from every legal angle to avoid miscarriages of justice — have left many of his former colleagues uneasy.
“I have some sympathy with the requirement, but it is far too harsh,” he said. “After all, we are only human. Sometimes mistakes occur.”
Some judges have expressed concerns about facing retrospective legal action if a verdict is shown to be incorrect, even many years after the decision was made and when the laws and public attitudes may have changed, according to the former judge.
“If we’re retired and such a situation arises, will we still be expected to shoulder the blame?” he asked, pointing out that judges’ salaries are not commensurate with the pressures they are expected to shoulder.
“I earned less than 5,000 yuan ($788) a month as a judge. In Beijing, that made it really hard to feed my two sons. Making a living must come first,” he said.
He welcomed the news that the central leadership passed proposals in September to raise the salaries of judicial officers, saying the development would encourage people still working in the system.
In September, the SPC issued a guideline clarifying judicial officers’ responsibilities, and stipulating that judges will be offered protection if they are threatened, slandered or libeled.
The guideline also pledged that judges will face heavy punishments if they are found to have accepted bribes, acted corruptly or handed down intentionally incorrect verdicts.
“Better protection and a moretransparent approach will set the minds of judicial officials at rest,” Zhang Wei said.