（Jing Gao Fa[2019]No.140, effective from March 18,2019）

The Judicial Committee of Beijing Higher People’s Court

Discussed and Adopted at the 3rd Meeting of 2019

In order to comprehensively implement the judicial accountability system, establish a balanced, transparent, impartial and scientific case assignment system, regulate the trial supervision and management duties of court presidents and division chief judges, balance the workload of judges and prevent integrity risks, in accordance with the Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Implementing the Judicial Accountability System and Improving the Trial Supervision and Management Mechanism (for Trial Implementation), the Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Comprehensively Implementing the Judicial Accountability System and other provisions, in light of actual situations of the courts in Beijing, these Provisions are hereby formulated.

Article 1 The people’s courts at all levels shall establish and improve the case assignment system dominated by random assignment of cases with designated assignment of cases as a supplement.

Article 2 Random assignment of cases means that the people’s courts at all levels determine the undertaking charge of a case at random according to certain rules concerning assignment of cases by means of information technology.

Article 3 Random assignment of cases is applicable to all types of cases accepted by the people’s courts at all levels.

Article 4 For the purpose of random assignment of cases, the rules of assigning cases to divisions and the rules of assigning cases to judges shall be formulated in advance according to the categories of the trial fields and the division of complicated and simple cases.

(1) Rules of assigning cases to divisions, including, without limitation, the rules concerning special cases inside trial & enforcement courts, setup of specialized trial groups and judge rotating sequence inside trial courts or groups.

(2) Rules of assigning cases to judges, including, without limitation, the setup of specialties of judges, case handling capacity, rotating sequence and case merging rules, as well as the number of cases received, pending and completed and their respective weight and priority level.

The rules concerning random assignment of cases can be adjusted from time to time based on the judicial operation situation.

Article 5 Designated assignment of cases means that the court presidents and division chief judges of the people’s courts at all levels may designate or change the undertaking judge of a case which is not suitable to be assigned at random.

Article 6 The court presidents and division chief judges may, according to their respective authorities, designate the undertaking judges for:

(1) Major, difficult, complex or new-type cases;

(2) A batch of cases or affiliated cases which have the same plaintiff or defendant or cause of action and are accepted as the same batch;

(3) Cases which are remanded back by the higher court for retrial to pass a new judgment or sentence, reheard as are instituted through adjudicatory supervision procedure or lodged a protest by the people’s procuratorate;

(4) Other cases to which random assignment of cases is unsuitable.

Article 7 The following work flow shall be followed in assignment of cases:

(1) The chief judges of trial and enforcement divisions shall determine the rules of random assignment of cases in advance;

(2) After accepting a case, the case filing division shall, through the case assignment system, assign the case to the relevant judge of certain trial or enforcement division, and mark the case if it meets the conditions for designated assignment of cases;

(3) After receiving the case, the chief judge of the trial or enforcement division shall make additional mark or adjust the mark if the case meets the conditions for designated assignment of cases, and designate the undertaking judge or the members of the collegial panel;

(4) Designated assignment of cases must be approved by the president. The chief judge of the trial or enforcement division, who has been granted authority, shall designate the undertaking judge or the members of the collegial panel for the case and report to the president for filing.

Article 8 The undertaking judge of a case may not be changed without authorization once being determined. If it is necessary to adjust the undertaking judge due to designated assignment of cases, avoidance, physical condition, job transfer or integrity risk, such adjustment must be approved by the relevant presidents and chief judges according to their respective authorities.

Adjustment of the undertaking judge of a case must be approved by the president. The chief judge of the trial or enforcement division, who has been granted authority, shall adjust the undertaking judge and report to the president for filing.

The result and reason of adjusting the undertaking judge of a case must be notified to parties to the case in a timely manner.

Article 9 If an undertaking judge will leave his or her post for two weeks or longer due to post communication, pregnancy and birth, sick leave or leave for personal affairs, education & training, business travel or otherwise, he or she may apply for suspension of assignment of cases; such application shall be approved by chief judges and presidents level by level.

After the reason above is relieved, the chief judge shall resume assignment of cases to the undertaking judge and report to the president for filing.  

Article 10 Beijing Higher People’s Court will provide IT services, including online full-process, documented transactions of pre-setting of rules, random assignment of cases, designated assignment of cases, adjusted assignment of cases, suspension of assignment of cases, resumption of assignment of cases, as well as application, approval and filing online.

Article 11 Beijing Higher People’s Court will control and check the work of random assignment of cases and apply information technology to collecting data, make statistics item by item, make assessment and calculation, etc.

The implementation of random assignment of cases will be included in the target accountability system assessment of courts or divisions.

Article 12 For the purpose of these Provisions, “presidents and chief judges” include presidents, vice presidents, directors of enforcement bureaus, vice directors of enforcement bureaus, chief judges and deputy chief judges. In particular, full-time members of the judicial committee who are in charge of certain trial departments will be regarded as vice presidents.

Article 13 The power to interpret these Provisions is vested in Beijing Higher People’s Court.

Article 14 These Provisions shall be implemented on the trial basis as of the date of issuing.