Fashi [2019] No.4

The Decision of the Supreme People’s Court on Amending the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Strictly Regulating the Extension of Adjudicatory Time Limits and Postponement of Hearings in Civil and Commercial Cases was adopted at the 1762nd meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on February 25, 2019. It is hereby promulgated and shall come into force on March 28, 2019.

Supreme People’s Court

27 March 2019

Supreme People’s Court Decision on Amending the "The Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Strictly Regulating the Extension of Adjudicatory Time Limits and Postponement of Hearings in Civil and Commercial Cases

(Adopted at the 1762nd meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on February 25, 2019, effective as of March 28, 2019)

According to the decision of the 1762nd meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People’s Court, the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Strictly Regulating the Extension of Adjudicatory Time Limits and Postponement of Hearings in Civil and Commercial Cases (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions) are amended as follows:

I. A new Article 2: “The "other circumstances that require postponement" provided in Article 146, Item 4 of the Civil Procedure Law refers to circumstances where a court hearing cannot be conducted normally due to force majeure or unexpected events.”

II. A new Article 3: "The people’s court shall strictly limit the number of postponed hearings. When the ordinary procedure is applied to the hearing of civil and commercial cases, the number of postponed hearings shall not exceed twice.When the summary procedure or small-claim expedited procedure is applied to the hearing of civil and commercial cases, the number of postponed hearings shall not exceed once."

III. A new Article 4, divided into four paragraphs: "The primary people’s courts and their local tribunals shall apply the summary procedure to simple civil and commercial cases with clear facts, clear rights and obligations and no major disputes.""The primary people’s courts and their local tribunals shall apply the summary procedure to the hearing of civil and commercial cases that meet the conditions of the preceding paragraph and whose value in dispute is less than twice the annual average wage of the employed personnel in the previous year of respective provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, except for cases where the summary procedure is not applicable under the provisions of laws and judicial interpretations.""In civil and commercial cases where the summary procedure is applicable, pre-trial preparatory procedures such as evidence exchange and pre-trial conferences shall be carried out together with the court hearing and shall not be organized separately.""Service through public notice is not applicable to cases where the summary procedure is applied."

IV. The "hear for a second time" in Article 2 of the Provisions is amended to "postpone the hearing".

V. Articles of the Provisions are reordered from "Article 2" to "Article 5", "Article 3" to "Article 6", "Article 4" to "Article 7", "Article 5" to "Article 8" and "Article 6" to "Article 9".

This decision shall come into force as of March 28, 2019.

The Provisions are amended according to this decision and re-issued after adjusting the order of the articles.

Supreme people’s court Provisions on Strictly Regulating the Extension of Adjudicatory Time Limits and Postponement of Hearings in Civil and Commercial Cases

(Adopted at the 1737th meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on April 23, 2018, amended in accordance with the Decision of the Supreme People’s Court on Amending the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Strictly Regulating the Extension of Adjudicatory Time Limits and Postponement of Hearings in Civil and Commercial cases, adopted at the 1762nd meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on February 25, 2019)

In order to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of litigants, the following rules are provided according to the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China and other provisions and in light of adjudication practices to regulate the extension of adjudicatory time limits and the postponement of hearings in civil and commercial cases.

Article 1 When hearing civil and commercial cases, the people’s court shall strictly abide by the provisions of the law and judicial interpretations concerning the adjudicatory time limits. Cases of first instance that are tried under the ordinary procedure shall be closed in six months. Cases of first instance that are tried under the summary procedure shall be closed in three months.The hearing of appeals against Judgments shall be closed in three months.The adjudicatory time limit for hearing an appeal against a Ruling shall be 30 days.

If the law provides for an extension under special circumstances, the single judge or judicial panel shall apply to the president of the court 15 days before the expiration of the time limit, and explain the details and reasons.The president shall make a decision five days before the expiration of the time limit.

If the case cannot be closed after the approved extension and needs to be extended further, an application shall be submitted to the people’s court at a higher level for approval 15 days before the expiration of the extension.The people’s court at a higher level shall make a decision five days before the expiration of the extension.

Article 2 The "other circumstances that require postponement" provided in article 146, item 4 of the Civil Procedure Law refers to the circumstances where a court hearing cannot be conducted normally due to force majeure or unexpected events.

Article 3 The people’s court shall strictly limit the number of postponed hearings. When the ordinary procedure is applied to the hearing of civil and commercial cases, the number of postponed hearings shall not exceed twice. When the summary procedure or small-claim expedited procedure is applied to the hearing of civil and commercial cases, the number of postponed hearings shall not exceed once.

Article 4 The primary people’s courts and their local tribunals shall apply the summary procedure to simple civil and commercial cases with clear facts, clear rights and obligations and no major disputes.

The primary people’s courts and their local tribunals shall apply the summary procedure to the hearing of civil and commercial cases that meet the conditions of the preceding paragraph and whose value in dispute is less than twice the annual average wage of the employed personnel in the previous year of respective provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, except for cases where the summary procedure is not applicable under the provisions of laws and judicial interpretations.

In civil and commercial cases where the summary procedure is applicable, pre-trial preparatory procedures such as evidence exchange and pre-trial conferences shall be carried out together with the court hearing and shall not be organized separately.

Service through public notice is not applicable to cases where the summary procedure is applicable.

Article 5 If the people’s court considers it necessary to postpone the hearing after it starts to heara civil or commercial case, the court shall inform the parties of the time of the next hearing according to law. The interval between the two hearings shall not exceed one month, except in cases of force majeure or with the consent of the parties.

Article 6 Where the provision of Article 146, Item 4 of the Civil Procedure Law is applied to postpone the hearing, the single judge or judicial panel shall report to the president of the court for approval.

Article 7 The people’s court shall promptly make available to the parties, their statutory representatives and agent ad litem the date of case registration, the adjudicatory time limits, the deduction, extension, recalculation of the said time limits, and the circumstances and reasons for postponing the hearing, in accordance with the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on the Provision of Adjudication Process Information through the Internet by the People’s Courts. If the parties, their statutory representativesor agent ad litem have objections, they may apply according to law to the court that accepts the case for supervisory actions.

Article 8 Whoever intentionally delays hearing a case in violation of laws, adjudication disciplines and adjudication management regulations, or delays the hearingof a case due to negligence, shall be sanctioned in accordance with Article 47 of the Regulations of People’s Courts on Disciplinary Actions against Staff Members, if such delay results in serious consequences.

Article 9 These Provisions shall come into force as of April 26, 2018. If the judicial interpretations and normative documents previously issued by the Supreme People’s Court are inconsistent with these Provisions, these Provisions shall prevail.

Secretariat Division I, General Office of the Supreme People’s Court

March 27, 2019