Circuit courts proving their worth

Two extra "hands" of China's top court heard more than 1,700 cases last year, helping residents solve disputes at home and relieving the burden of filing petitions in Beijing.

As a part of judicial reforms to ease the pressure on the nation's top court and make it more convenient for litigants to file lawsuits, the First Circuit Court and the Second Circuit Court, which the Supreme People's Court established in January last year, have played a great role in improving judicial credibility.

In 2015 alone, the First Circuit Court in Shenzhen - which is responsible for the provinces of Guangdong and Hainan, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region - handled 898 cases, of which 843 have been concluded, according to the top court.