Circular of Beijing Municipal High People's Court on Issuing the Measures of Beijing Municipal High People's Court on Comprehensively Implementing the Working Mechanism of "Responding to and Handling Lawsuits Without Delay" for Contacting the Judge

Jing Gao Fa Fa [2020] No. 26

To Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court, No.2 Intermediate People's Court, No.3 Intermediate People's Court, No.4 Intermediate People's Court, and Beijing Intellectual Property Court;

To the People's Courts of all districts and Beijing Internet Court;

To the Departments of Beijing Municipal High People's Court,

The Measures of Beijing Municipal High People's Court on Comprehensively Implementing the Working Mechanism of "Responding to and Handling Lawsuits Without Delay" for Contacting the Judge has been deliberated and adopted by the 60th meeting of the leading Party group of Beijing Municipal High People's Court in 2019, and is hereby issued for your implementation in light of your reality.

The Regulation is hereby issued.

Beijing Municipal High People's Court

January 8, 2020

Measures of Beijing Municipal High People's Court on Comprehensively Implementing the Working Mechanism of"Responding to and Handling Lawsuits Without Delay" for Contacting the Judge

The Measures are formulated in light of the practice of the municipal courts in Beijing, in order to guarantee the parties' right to know, to participate, to express and to supervise. It aims to build the working mechanism of "responding to and handling lawsuits without delay" for contacting the judge into a practical version of "process without delay" mechanism proposed by Beijing Municipal Party Committee, thoroughly implement the judicial disclosure mechanism, continuously improve the level of judicial work for the people, and further improve the working style.

I. General Requirements

1. Guiding philosophy. Guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully adhere to the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. We will follow the principle of impartial administration of justice and justice for the people, respond to the people's demand, integrate the litigation services, spervision and management resources of the municipal courts at all levels, and implement the working mechanism of"responding to and handling lawsuits without delay" for contacting the judge. We will try to make people feel fair and justice in every judicial case.

2. Overall objective. We will fully implement the working mechanism of "responding to and handling lawsuits without delay" for contacting the judge, so as to ensure that every judge is in place and every case is resolved. We will deepen judicial disclosure, change judicial working style, increase judicial credibility, and constantly enhance the people's sense of gain.

3. Basic principles. Each court shall adhere to the principle of convenient, timely, standardized and efficient work, serve the parties concerned, and fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people. Each court shall also serve judges and effectively reduce the workload of the trial team. Each court shall facilitate trial management, and effectively and actively assist the leadership in scientific decision-making.

II. Main Contents

4. Expanding channels. Judges shall ensure people's right to know, participate, express and supervise through effective communication. If the people are unable to contact any judge directly, they can make such a request to contact a judge by going to the litigation service center, calling 12368 for consultation, leaving messages via the WeChat official account "Beijing Court Trial Information Network" and "Beijing Court Litigation Service", and "Beijing Mobile Micro-Court", etc. Each court shall ensure that the channels for contacting judges are available. People who fails to contact judges through the center, website, WeChat and other channels can file complaints by calling 12368.

5. Responding to lawsuits immediately upon receipt. Litigation service personnel shall fully use the information technology, effectively integrate, identify and screen various appeals for contacting judges, and distinguish between simple and complicated appeals. For litigation consulting, case inquiry, submission of materials and other general that can be directly replied to and dealt with, the litigation service personnel shall be handled immediately through manual or digital methods as soon as possible.

6. Handling appeals immediately. For appeals concerning the exercise of judicial power by the court or closely related to a case, work orders shall be distributed to judges through the "Integrated Application System of Litigation Services". The trial team shall handle the work orders in time within the prescribed period in strict accordance with relevant requirements of courts in Beijing, such as the Regulations for Handling Work Orders from the Network of Integ"d Application System of Litigation Services, the Work Specification on Handling Netizens' Demands for “Leave a Message to Judge", and the Work Specification of 12368 Artificial Voice Litigation Service Hotline.

7. Dedicated contact person. The litigation service department of each court shall designate a contact person to connect with the judge, and publicize his or her information in the corresponding place, and such person shall be responsible for urging the trial courtroom to handle and reply to appeals on schedule. The contact person shall be familiar with the trial business, good at dealing with the public, and skilled in operating the "Integrated Application System of Litigation Services".

8. Emergency response mechanism. The courts shall promptly and effectively deal with the appeals of the people involving major issues or emergencies or dangerous threats, so as to prevent and avoid the occurrence of emergencies, online public chaos or mass disturbances.

9. Internal cooperation. The litigation service office of Beijing Municipal High People's Court selects typical problems from the work lists that involve many aspects such as case filing, trial, execution and judge's work style on a monthly basis , and summarizes and submits them to the Inspection Office of Beijing Municipal High People's Court for auditing and supervision. Every month, the hot and difficult issues reflected by the appeals concerning contacting judges will be collected and submitted to the Trial Management Office of Beijing Municipal High People's Court for special supervision.

10. Analysis and summary. The litigation service office of Beijing Municipal High People's Court will establish a monthly publication and briefing mechanism, and strengthen the application of appeals for contacting judges based on the data automatically generated by the "Integrated Application System of Litigation Services". It will regularly analyze, categorize and summarize all kinds of appeals and the feedback of auditing and special supervision. It will also keep close to the trial work, accurately grasp how the work of contacting judges goes, truly reflect the situation, present opinions and suggestions, take concrete actions and make solid progress in the rectification.

11. Handling before suing. By using the big data analysis of the appeals for contacting judges, we will sort out and summarize the problem types that can be "handled before being sued". We will identify problems and solve them before people raise their appeals, identify the direction of our work, and form an active governance pattern of "handling before suing". We will try to solve a class of problems through an appeal and promote special governance through a case.

III. Supporting Measures

12. Top leadership project. All courts shall regard the work of contacting judges as the "top leadership" project and focus on it, so as to ensure that this work is promoted at a top level and in a coordinated manner. Additionally, each court shall establish a mechanism for coordinating and promoting the work of contacting judges to further enhance a cross-departmental working synergy.

13. Joint system. The leading Party group of each court shall strictly take on the primary responsibility. President of each court shall earnestly perform its responsibilities as the first responsible person to includes the work of "responding to and handling lawsuits without delay" for contacting the judge into the routine agenda of the Party leading group or the agenda of the supervision of the president office. Special studies will be conducted on the key and difficult issues that the people are mostly concerned about. Beijing Municipal High People's Court will hold joint meetings attended by presidents of the courts from time to time to jointly study the issues related to the work of contacting judges and people's appeals, define responsibilities, solve the problems, and study specific measures. As a result, we will form an interactive mechanism for responding to the appeal for contacting judges of Beijing courts, which features information sharing, complementary advantages and cooperation.

14. Assessment and supervision. We will give full play to the incentive and guiding role of annual performance assessment, take the work of contacting judges as an important indicator, and strengthen the supervision and accountability. Besides, we will strengthen the supervision and management of the work of contacting judges. The Litigation Service Office of Beijing Municipal High People's Court shall adopt the problem-oriented approach to report the handling of appeals of each court in a classified manner on a monthly basis, and publicize the performance ranking. If necessary, the competent leaders of Beijing Municipal High People's Court shall hold an interview meeting to directly implement accurate supervision and discipline enforcement and accountability for the courts lagging behind.

15. Accountability. For those who prevaricate claimants in a perfunctory way, fail to handle or settle appeals in time or properly and result in negative public opinions, or refuse to correct errors and defects after being asked, the relevant personnel shall be investigated for responsibility according to the regulations and disciplines.

IV. Others

16. Encouraging innovation. We will encourage all courts to create an innovative working mechanism of "responding to and handling lawsuits without delay" for contacting the judge, and to summarize and promote good practices in time.

17. Time of implementation. The Measures shall come into force as of the date of issuance.