Judicial services remain in place during epidemic

BEIJING - With the use of internet and information technology, Chinese courts continued to operate throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, and over 400,000 trials were conducted online.

Between Feb 3 and July 3, Chinese courts accepted 2.8 million cases filed online and opened for session online 440,000 times, according to court sources.

Also, online mediation was carried out in 1.29 million cases over this period, it was announced at a recent national conference attended by chiefs of the higher people's courts nationwide.

Chinese courts have been making efforts in advancing reforms of the judicial case filing system and about 95 percent of the courts can now accept cases filed online.

In 2019, a total of 5.9 million cases were filed with and accepted by courts online, about 2.5 times the number in 2018, the sources said.

The courts' online platforms are also connected with other dispute resolution platforms, such as mediation services for civil or commercial disputes, as well as the platforms of legal services.

The judiciary system will work to provide a network of diversified judicial services with a one-stop platform to save the public the trouble of going from pillar to post, according to the sources.