Hu Gao Fa [2019] No.76

To Shanghai No.1 and No.2 Intermediate People's Courts, Shanghai No.3 Intermediate People's Court (the Intellectual Property Court, the Intermediate Railway Transportation Court), the Maritime Court, the Financial Court, District People's Courts, and the Railway Transportation Court:

With a view to further facilitating litigants' litigation, saving litigation costs, improving litigation efficiency, and providing effective judicial services and guarantees for optimizing the business environment, Shanghai High People's Court, in accordance with the relevant work requirements of the Supreme People’s Court, has formulated Several Provisions of Shanghai High People's Court on Online Case Initiation, Electronic Service and Electronic Categorization (for Trial Implementation), which are hereby printed out for distribution, and request all courts to implement the provisions. If any problem occurs during the implementation, please report it in time to the case filing court, the office, and the NO.2 civil tribunal of Shanghai High People’s Court.

You are hereby notified.

Annex: Several Provisions of Shanghai High People's Court on Online Case Initiation, Electronic Service and Electronic Categorization (for Trial Implementation)

Shanghai High People’s Court

February 27, 2019

Annex:

Several Provisions of Shanghai High People's Court on Online Case Initiation, Electronic Service and Electronic Categorization (for Trial Implementation)

With a view to further facilitating litigants' litigation, saving litigation costs, improving litigation efficiency, and further serving, ensuring and optimizing the construction of the business environment, several matters concerning online case initiation, electronic service, and electronic categorization of Shanghai courts are hereby provided.

I. Online Case Initiation

Article 1 (Definition) Online case initiation means that the personnel in charge of case filing in courts at all levels register the case filing applications submitted by the parties through identity authentication or by lawyers and legal professionals who log on to Shanghai court 12368 litigation service platform (Shanghai court litigation service network, or “Shanghai court 12368” WeChat public account, etc.) by entering their personal keys.

Article 2 (Scope of case filing) The kinds of cases that are suitable for online case filing are the first instance of ordinary civil cases, civil and commercial cases, intellectual property rights cases, financial cases, the first instance of criminal cases of private prosecution, civil and commercial enforcement cases, and application-based civil and commercial retrial cases.

Article 3 (specially-assigned persons) Each court shall designate certain persons to be responsible for online cases initiation, and shall arrange two judges handling online cases initiation for timely reply. In case of personnel change, each court shall timely report to the general platform of 12368 litigation service of Shanghai High People’s Court after the handover.

Article 4 (Timely examination) The persons handling case filing shall, in accordance with relevant provisions on case-filing work, examine the case-filing application materials submitted by the applicant without delay, and shall start the examination within half an hour after receiving the application under normal circumstances.

Article 5 (Forms of response) The persons handling case filing respond to an application mainly through online platform. They may also respond through E-mail, telephone, fax, or other forms. In the case of response by E-mail, telephone, fax or other forms, the persons handling case filing shall keep a good record of all responses, and indicate the time, method, and content of the response in the online case initiation system.

Article 6 (Methods to handle) The methods of handling online cases initiation include the approving of case filing, the disapproving of case filing, the requirement for supplementary materials, corrections, interviews, and others.

Article 7 (Cases meeting the filing conditions) The cases initiated online shall be filed if they meet the conditions for initiating, and a notice of payment of litigation fees shall be generated online and sent to the applicant. The plaintiff need not submit a paper complaint separately.

Article 8 (Cases not meeting filing conditions) For the cases do not meet the basic conditions for being put on file for acceptance, where the cases are beyond the jurisdiction of this court, lack the necessary grounds for filing, and the plaintiff repeatedly brings the same claim or is not eligible, the persons handling case filing shall not approve for filing the cases and shall inform the applicant that he or she may file a lawsuit in the people's court with jurisdiction or apply to the relevant departments for settlement, and the persons handling case filing may also make an appointment with the applicant or inform the applicant to go to the court filing window for face-to-face consultation.

Article 9 (Notification regarding the supplement) Where a case meets the basic conditions for being put on file but lacks the essentials of evidence, the persons handling case filing shall inform the applicant to submit the corresponding materials within a certain period of time and the consequences of failing to submit the materials in due time. If the applicant fails to submit in time, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn.

Article 10 (Situations unable to confirm) If the relevant materials provided by the applicant cannot be confirmed whether to be qualified for filing or not, the persons handling case filing shall inform the applicant to bring the relevant materials to the court filing window for the case filing judge to review the case materials directly.

Article 11 (SMS push) The SMS push related to time nodes has been newly added to inform the applicant. The applicants will be informed the time of starting the process, requirements for supplementary materials (the SMS will be sent again if the supplement has not been completed in due time) and the end of the process. The content of SMS includes pushing the contact information of the case filing judge.

Article 13 (Interpretation) The Case Filing Chamber of Shanghai High People’s Court shall be responsible for the interpretation of the relevant rules on online case initiation, and shall guide, coordinate and supervise during the trial implementation process.

II. Electronic Service

Article 14 (Definition) Electronic service, which is different from the traditional paper service, uses fax, E-mail, special communication number, WeChat public account and other electronic methods to serve relevant litigation documents.

Article 15 (Scope of cases where electronic service is applicable) Electronic service can be adopted in first instance ordinary civil cases, civil and commercial cases, intellectual property right cases, financial cases, criminal cases of private prosecution of first instance and civil and commercial enforcement cases if the parties concerned confirm to adopt the methods aforementioned in writing. Cases served electronically are no longer served by paper mail.

Article 16 (Scope of documents served) Documents that can be served electronically include procedural documents such as the case acceptance notice, summons, the notice of adducing evidence, the notice of responding to action, and the notice of payment, excluding legal documents such as paper of judgment, ruling paper and conciliation document.

Article 17 (Means of service) Electronic service is carried out through China Judicial Process Information Online, Shanghai Court Litigation Service Network, the “Shanghai Court 12368” WeChat public account and other platforms.

Article 18 (Operating procedure) After the parties concerned sign the confirmation of electronic service, the court initiates the electronic service through the case trial system to China Judicial Process Information Online, Shanghai Court Litigation Service Network, the “Shanghai Court 12368” WeChat public account and other platforms. The specific operation steps are as follows:

(I) The court sends electronic service notification SMS to the mobile phone number confirmed by the parties concerned, informing them of the content of service and the service password for logging in to the relevant websites;

(II) After receiving the SMS, the parties concerned can log in to China Judicial Process Information Online, Shanghai Court Litigation Service Network, or the electronic service system of the “Shanghai Court 12368” WeChat public account, to view and download the relevant electronic documents;

(III) The date when the litigation documents arrive at China Judicial Process Information Online shall be regarded as the date of service of the document, and the system will automatically record and generate the certificate of service;

(IV) Upon the arrival of the litigation documents at Shanghai Court Litigation Service Network and the “Shanghai court 12368” WeChat public account, a digital signature is required from the parties concerned. After the parties concerned sign to acknowledge receipt of the documents, the system will automatically generate the certificate of service.

Article 19 (The transition from electronic services to traditional services) The case-filing judge and the case-handling judge shall log in to the case trial system to check whether the electronic document has been signed. If the recipient doesn’t respond within three working days after the electronic document is sent, or if the recipient refuses electronic service, the electronic service shall be regarded as invalid and the document shall be served in other statutory means.

Article 20 (Responsibilities of each department) The Case Filing Chamber and the Trial Management Office shall spearhead the electronic service work and closely cooperate with trial business departments, the office, and the Information Management Department.

The Case Filing Chamber is responsible for introducing the procedure of electronic service to the parties concerned, inputting information, electronic service, following up and supervising the service process.

The Trial Management Office is responsible for managing the electronic service, establishing the evaluation mechanism and coordinating all departments.

Each relevant business chamber is responsible for re-publicity of electronic service, inputting information and serving electronic documents during the case handling.

The office and the Information Management Department are responsible for providing technical support and logistics in electronic service.

Article 21 (Interpretation) The Case Filing Chamber of Shanghai High People’s Court shall be responsible for interpreting the relevant rules on electronic service, as well as guiding, coordinating and supervising during the trial implementation process.

III. Electronic Categorization

Article 22 (Definition) Electronic categorization refers to the process of categorizing electronic materials submitted by the parties concerned in the litigation and the trial of the case in accordance with relevant requirements.

Article 23 (Electronic materials submission specification) The electronic litigation materials submitted by the parties concerned through the Shanghai Court 12368 Litigation Service Platform shall comply with the technical specifications listed in the annex to the Provisions.

Article 24 (Electronic categorization process) The department handling the case shall archive the electronic files through the Synchronized Electronic File Generation System within three months after the case is closed. The court clerk shall be responsible for collating and checking the electronic files and the paper files to ensure the consistency of contents. The responsible judge shall review the archived electronic files to ensure that the quality meets the requirements. The Department of Archives is responsible for acceptance and storage of the archived electronic files.

Article 25 (Custody of Electronic files) The Department of Archives is responsible for the long term preservation of archived electronic files. The custody requirements shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant management rules of the Supreme People's Court and the National Archives Administration of China.

Article 26 (Interpretation) The Archive Department of Shanghai High People’s Court is responsible for interpreting the relevant rules on electronic categorization as well as guiding, coordinating and supervising the trial implementation.

These Rules shall come into force as of the date of issuance.

Annex:

Technical Specifications for the Parties Concerned to Submit Electronic Litigation Materials

1. The electronic litigation materials shall be submitted in accordance with the content of materials respectively, including the indictment, identification materials, entrusting materials, evidence and so on. Each electronic document shall be named in accordance with the content and the names of materials in the same case shall not be duplicated. The size of each electronic material shall not exceed 100MB;

2. Electronic litigation materials shall be submitted in PDF format, and all materials about the same content shall be collected into one PDF file;

3. If the paper materials need to be scanned to form electronic litigation materials, the scanning mode shall be 24-bit color or above and the scanning resolution shall be above 300 DPI. If the text of materials is small, dense, or the resolution is poor, the recommended scanning resolution is no less than 400 DPI;

4. The electronic litigation materials shall conform to the user's reading habits. Rotated or obviously skewed pages are not acceptable. Stains and black edges that obviously affect the reading process shall be removed before uploading;

5. The litigation materials for the same case must be arranged in order according to the actual content. Before scanning, the page number shall be written in the lower right corner of the paper materials, except for the materials with original continuous page numbers;

6. Digital photos submitted as evidence shall be uploaded in JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG format. When uploaded, the digital photos shall be named in accordance with the content specification, and marked with corresponding text description.