(Jing Gao Fa Fa [2019] No. 78，promulgated on February 20,2019, became invalidated after the implementation of the Measures of Beijing Court for Online Case Filing on March 9,2020)

No.1 Intermediate People’s Court, No.2 Intermediate People’s Court, No.3 Intermediate People’s Court, No.4 Intermediate People’s Court, Beijing Intellectual Property Court,

The people’s courts of all districts and Beijing Internet Court:

For the purposes of further facilitating litigation parties, promoting the informatization construction of case filing work, and improving the quality and efficiency of case filing work, the Measures of Beijing Court for Online Case Filing and WeChat Case Filing Appointment is issued for study and implementation. In case of any question arising out of implementation, please contact the case-filing tribunal of Beijing High People’s Court in a timely manner.

The notice is hereby given.

Beijing High People’s Court

February 20, 2019

Measures of Beijing Court for Online Case Filing and WeChat Case Filing Appointment

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 For the purposes of facilitating litigation parties, promoting information construction of case filing work and improving the quality and efficiency of case filing work, in accordance with Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China and relevant laws and regulations, these Measures are hereby formulated in light of the actual case filing work of Beijing courts.

Article 2  Online and WeChat case filing appointment refers to the working mechanism reducing the frequency for the parties or agents from the court for filing by submitting applications for case filing appointment through the online case filing appointment system of Beijing Court and WeChat case filing appointment system, After examination and approval, they go to the court for case filing at the prescribed time.

Article 3 Online direct case filing refers to the working mechanism whereby an attorney submits the application for case-filing through the online direct case filing system of the Beijing Court, and the Beijing court directly registers the case after examination and approval.

Article 4 Online and Wechat case-filing appointment shall apply to civil, commercial, intellectual property rights and enforcement cases at the first instance.

Online direct case filing is applicable to the first-instance civil, commercial, intellectual property rights and enforcement cases under the jurisdiction of high courts and intermediate courts. Also, online direct case filing of the first-instance commercial cases of sales contract disputes, loan contract disputes, financial loan contract disputes, undertaking contracting disputes and commission contract disputes is implemented in city-wide courts, including grassroots courts.

Article 5 The parties and attorneys shall abide by the principle of good faith, truthfully fill in the relevant information, and ensure the integrity, clarity and authenticity of the relevant materials submitted; they shall not engage in false litigation, pretend to be others to bring a lawsuit or abuse their litigation rights.

Chapter II Application

Article 6 After logging into the online case filing appointment system, the WeChat case filing appointment system and the online direct case filing system, parties or agents shall choose the jurisdictional courts, types of cases and cause of action according to the existing laws and regulations of our country.

Article 7 The parties or agents shall accurately fill in the claim value, the relevant identity information of the parties and agents according to the requirements of the online appointment system, the online direct case filing system and the WeChat case-filing appointment system, and upload the indictment (application), identity certificate, the formalities for authorization, evidence materials and other necessary indictment (application) materials as required.

The indictment shall specify the following matters:

(I) The name, gender, ID, age, ethnic group, occupation, employer, domicile and contact information of the plaintiff ; or the name and domicile of the legal person or other organization as well as the name, title and contact information of the legal representative or major executive;

(II) The name, gender, employer, domicile, the name and domicile of a legal person or other organization, etc. of the defendant;

(III) The claim and the facts and reasons on which it is based;

(IV) The evidence and sources of evidence, names and domiciles of witnesses.

Beijing court has developed a template of writ-style indictment for specific types of cases. After the parties fill in relevant elements information according to the requirements, the system automatically generates standardized indictment to facilitate litigation.

Article 8 The electronic text of A4 paper should be used for the indictment and application provided by the parties and agents in the online case filing appointment system, the online direct case filing system and the Wechat case filing appointment systems well as the attached editable indictments, electronic texts of applications (Word texts) and paper documents of other materials in PDF format in consistent with the contents of written materials.

Article 9 The litigation (application) materials and electronic information submitted by the parties and agents through the WeChat case filing appointment system, the online case filing appointment system and the online direct case filing appointment system shall not contain the following contents:

(I) Breaking laws and regulations, divulging state secrets and damage national interests;

(II) Disseminating rumors, disturbing public order and affecting social stability;

(III) Insulting or defaming others, personal assault, abus, and slander;

(IV) Advertising;

(V) Other contents prohibited by laws and regulations.

Article 10 A party or agent may submit an application after completion of filling in or uploading in accordance with the requirements of Articles 6, 7 and 8 of these Measures. The date of submission is the date of application.

Chapter III Examination, Handling and Case Transfer

Article 11 The case filing department should allocate a corresponding number of case filing judges according to the case workload, who are responsible for the examination of WeChat case filing appointment, online case filing appointment and online direct case filing.

Article 12   Unless otherwise provided in these Measures, the case filing judge shall normally complete the examination and verification within 5 working days from the date of application for the case from WeChat case filing appointment system and online case filing appointment system and process as follows:

(I) If the case meets the requirements for prosecution or application for enforcement, it shall be examined and approved, and the parties or agents shall be informed to go to the appointed case filing court to handle the formalities at the prescribed time;

(II) If the materials submitted by the parties or agents in litigation do not meet the requirements, they shall be timely informed to make corrections within the prescribed time limit. If they fail to make corrections within the prescribed time limit or still fail to meet the requirements after making corrections, the examination shall not pass.

(III) If the litigant’s lawsuit does not meet the legal conditions and cannot be settled through supplementing and correcting, the examination shall not pass.

Article 13 Unless otherwise provided in these Measures, the case filing judge shall normally complete the examination and verification within 5 working days from the date of application for the case from online case filing appointment system and process as follows:

(I) Where the legal conditions for prosecution are met, the case shall be registered and filed immediately, and registration information shall be sent to the party concerned or the agent ad litem;

(II) Where the materials submitted by the parties or agents ad litem do not meet the requirements, the judge shall explain them in a timely manner and give full notification of the materials and the time limit to be supplemented and corrected at one time. If the supplement and correction meets the legal conditions within the specified time limit, the case shall be registered and filed. If it fails to supplement and correct within the time limit or fails to meet the requirements, the people’s court shall deliver a ruling of refusal;

(III) If a party’s lawsuit does not meet the legal conditions and cannot be settled by means of supplementing and correcting materials, the people’s court shall deliver a ruling of refusal.

Article 14 If an case filing judge considers that a case cannot be examined through the Wechat case-filing appointment system, the online case-filing appointment system and the online direct case -filing appointment system, the examination may be terminated. If the examination is terminated, it shall not be subject to the limitation of the examination time stipulated in Articles 12 and 13 of these Measures.

Article 15 The case filing department should set up online case filing appointment and WeChat case filing appointment windows to ensure the convenience and efficiency of case examination from online appointment and WeChat case filing appointment.

The party or agent who has passed the examination shall bring the written prosecution (application) materials to the appointed court for case filing at the prescribed time, and the authenticity of the prosecution (application) materials submitted online shall be examined by the judge for case filing. If, upon examination, the written indictment (application) materials submitted meet the conditions for case-filing, the application shall be accepted in a timely manner; if the conditions for case filing are not met, the application shall be refused.

Article 16 For online case filing, the case filing court shall transfer the electronic information of the case to the corresponding courtroom within 2 working days from the date of registration and filing, printing the corresponding copies of indictments in line with the number of defendants and transfer to the corresponding courtroom.

Article 17 For registered case, the limitation of action (limitation of application for execution) shall be interrupted from the date of application.

Chapter IV Other Provisions

Article 18 In violation of the provisions of Article 5 of these Measures, the parties and agents intentionally submit false lawsuits, pretend to be others to bring lawsuits or abuse their right of action. Once found through examination and verification, case will not be registered; they shall also be fined or detained according to the seriousness of the circumstances; if the case constitutes a crime, they shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

If the parties and agents violate the provisions of Article 9 of these Measures, the case filing court shall have the right to delete the litigation materials and electronic information containing the above contents, and take such measures as warning, suspending the provision of services and investigating the relevant legal liabilities to the submitters as appropriate.

Article 19 The litigant or agent shall pay litigation fees through online or on-site payment within 7 days from the date of case filing registration.

If the litigation fee has not been paid within the time limit and no application for reduction, exemption or postponement of the litigation fee has been submitted, the case filing court shall deal with it in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws or judicial interpretations.

Article 20 For cases from online case filing and WeChat case filing appointment, upon application of the parties, the judge of case filing chooses online or offline mediation in line with the circumstances of the case.

Article 21 For the cases directly filed online, if the litigants agree to electronic service of prosecution materials by the court, the court can use the litigation platform, mobile phone, fax, e-mail and other instant messaging tools for electronic service instead of paper mail service.

Article 22 For the cases directly filed online, the parties need not submit the paper-based prosecution materials to the court at the stage of case filing, trial and archiving.

Chapter V Supplementary Provisions

Article 23 The case-filing tribunal of Beijing High People’s Court is responsible for interpreting these Measures.

Article 24 These Measures shall go into effect on the date of promulgation.