Jolene Chen
On June 16, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court issued the Online Litigation Rules of the People’s Courts, which contain systematic regulations on the legal effects, basic principles, applicable conditions, etc., of online litigation, and how it will play a significant and far-reaching role in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitate class litigation, and enhancing trial efficiency. This article will briefly introduce the Online Litigation Rules of People’s Courts from the following five aspects.
First, the Online Litigation Rules for the People’s Courts specifically opens the electronic litigation platform for use in all elements of litigation, including filing, mediation, exchange of evidence, examination, court hearings, service of process, etc. Litigation activities conducted online have the same legal effect as those offline.
Second, the Online Litigation Rules for the People’s Courts specify the principles for conducting litigation online, such as fairness and efficiency, lawful and voluntary, protection of rights, convenience and facilitation to the people, and safety and reliability, among which lawful and voluntary are the most important. The Online Litigation Rules for the People’s Courts require proper deference and protection of the willingness of the parties and others involved in the litigation to conduct the procedure online; if they are not willing to conduct litigation online, the people’s court may not order or otherwise forcibly push the parties to conduct litigation online.
Third, the Online Litigation Rules for the People’s Courts list the type of cases that can be litigated online, which are all civil, administrative, and non-litigation cases; criminal cases are limited to those with simple facts and procedures, such as expedited criminal proceedings, sentence reduction and parole, and any other criminal cases that are not suitable for offline trial for other special reasons.
Fourth, with respect to electronic materials submitted by the parties, they maybe used directly in the litigation after they have been examined and approved by the people’s court. However, the people’s court shall require the parties to provide the originals if any of the following circumstances is present: (1) the other party provides a reasonable basis to their belief that the electronic materials are not identical to the originals; (2) the electronic materials are not complete, illegible content or failing to meet the formatting requirements; (3) the originals are required under the people’s court regulations concerning court files and file management; or (4) the people’s court considers it necessary to submit the originals. The electronic materials submitted by a party may be deemed to comply with the requirements for originals by the people’s court in any of the following circumstances: (1) the other party does not object to the consistency between the electronic materials and the originals; (2) the formation of the electronic materials was notarized by a notary public; (3) the electronic materials have already been submitted in previous litigation and confirmed by the people’s court; (4) the electronic materials are deemed identical to the originals after a comparison by online or offline means; or (5) there is other evidence to prove that the electronic materials are identical with the originals.
Fifth is the online appearance of witnesses. If a witness appears online, the people’s court shall designate the venue for the online appearance and setup the online witness room so as to ensure that s/he does not observe the proceeding and is not disturbed by others. If the parties provide a reasonable basis in objecting to the online appearance of the witness, or if the people’s court considers it necessary, it shall require the witness to testify in an offline hearing.