Top court to make judicial relief process smoother

China's top court said on Feb 26 it would take more measures to help litigants in financial difficulties to solve their disputes and make court work more humane.

Under Chinese laws, litigants facing financial difficulties or are unable to pay for litigation are allowed to apply for judicial relief, which is aimed at alleviating the litigants' financial problems and ensuring that their cases are heard in time.

To further regulate procedures on how courts offer the judicial relief and clarify how litigants can apply for judicial relief, the Supreme People's Court, the nation's top court, issued a series of guidelines on Tuesday, saying the clearer requirements would help judges end disputes more efficiently and better protect litigants' legitimate rights.

The guidelines include that family members of the deceased should submit a joint application for judicial relief instead of applying separately, and order courts nationwide to inform and disclose information about judicial relief to litigants via their websites or case filing centers.

"In addition, we're planning to set up a national online platform to deal with applications of the judicial relief to make the procedures more regulated," said Liu Zhumei, an official at the top court.

"Offering legal assistance is a key step of the country to guarantee the people's livelihood, and can also make litigants feel the warmth from courts," she added.

A litigant surnamed Jing spent 51 days in hospital and paid more than 96,000 yuan ($14,345) after he was injured by another man surnamed Zhang in a traffic accident in Henan province in March last year.

A court in Henan ruled that Zhang should be liable for the accident and ordered him to pay more than 211,000 yuan in compensation to Jing within 10 days. But it was difficult for Zhang to pay off the fine as he was jobless and his parents were battling serious illnesses.

Taking the situation in consideration, the court helped Jing apply for the judicial relief of 50,000 yuan to alleviate the financial burden of the two families and to efficiently solve the case.

In 2015, Chinese courts handled 41,000 cases in which litigants applied for judicial relief, and the number rose to 46,200 last year, according to figures released by the top court.