Draft law submitted to streamline civil litigation process

The efficiency and quality of solving civil litigations are expected to be further improved in China, according to a draft amendment to the Civil Procedure Law.

The draft amendment was submitted to the ongoing session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the country's top legislature, for review on Tuesday.

Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, said while introducing the draft to national lawmakers that revising the law is a necessity, as some current civil procedures do not meet people's legal demand on fairness, high efficiency and convenience, and restrict optimization of legal resources.

To solve the problems, the draft amendment seeks to simplify the procedures in dealing with cases involving a small amount of money, said Zhou, adding the draft amendment also acknowledges the equal legal effectiveness of online and offline lawsuits.

Before the draft, the top court had launched a pilot program related to civil procedures in a few regions of the country in 2019, which has made some achievements in improving legal efficiency and fully protecting litigants' legitimate rights, according to him.