Law [2021] No. 281
Supreme People's Court
Opinions on deepening the rectification of false lawsuits
In order to further strengthen the rectification of false litigation, maintain judicial order, achieve judicial justice, establish judicial authority, protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties, create a fair competitive market environment, and promote social integrity, in accordance with the "Civil Code of the People's Republic of China" and "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" The "Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" and other provisions, combined with the actual work, formulate this opinion.
1. Improve ideological understanding and strengthen accountability.
The work of rectifying false litigation is a major task deployed by the Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Party. It is the political, legal and social responsibility of the people’s courts. It is important for building a trustworthy society, protecting the rights of the people, safeguarding economic development, and maintaining judicial authority. Building a country ruled by law is of great significance.
People’s courts at all levels must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law, implement the principle of honesty and credibility in civil litigation in accordance with the law, adhere to the rigidity of the system, tighten the system’s cage, and reduce the space for false litigation. , Eradicate the breeding ground of false litigation, actively guide the people to litigate in good faith in accordance with the law, so that the law will secure the world and the morale of the people, and vigorously promote the core socialist values of honesty and trustworthiness.
2. Accurately screen and investigate, protect the right of litigation in accordance with the law.
Individually or maliciously colluding with others, using methods such as forging evidence and false statements, fabricating basic facts of civil cases, fabricating civil disputes, filing civil lawsuits in the people's courts, harming national interests, social public interests, or the legitimate rights and interests of others, and disrupting judicial order, It constitutes a false lawsuit.
Applying to the people’s court for the execution of arbitration awards, mediation documents and notarized creditor’s rights documents based on fabricated facts, and using fabricated facts to raise objections to the execution subject or apply for participation in the execution of property distribution during the civil enforcement process is also a false litigation.
Agents ad litem, witnesses, appraisers, notaries, etc. collude with others to jointly conduct false litigation, they are the perpetrators of false litigation.
While rectifying false litigation, the litigant's right of litigation should be protected in accordance with the law.
It is necessary to prevent the protection of the litigant's right to relax the identification and investigation of false litigation, and to prevent the use of rectification of false litigation as an excuse to not file a case and damage the litigant's right of litigation.
3. Identify the characteristic performance and do a good job of targeted remediation.
People's courts at all levels must actively summarize judicial practice experience, accurately grasp the characteristics of false litigation, and achieve precise and targeted rectification.
For cases with the following circumstances, we must be highly vigilant and strictly review to effectively prevent false litigation: the facts and reasons on which the plaintiff is suing are not in accordance with common sense; the amount of the lawsuit is seriously inconsistent with the plaintiff’s financial status; there are kinship, associations, etc. between the parties Interests, the outcome of the litigation may involve the interests of persons outside the case; there is no substantial civil rights dispute between the parties, and there is no substantial confrontational debate in the litigation; the parties’ self-confidence is not in line with common sense; the parties are under heavy debt burden but it is obviously unreasonable The transfer of property at a low price, the transfer of property at an obviously unreasonable high price, or the waiver of property rights; insufficient evidence to determine the facts of the case, the parties took the initiative to quickly reach a mediation agreement and request the people’s court to prepare a mediation statement; the facts of the case were not complete and accurate State the facts of the case or the inconsistencies in the statement, etc.
Fourth, focus on key areas and intensify rectification efforts.
Private lending disputes, enforcement objections, labor disputes, divorce and property analysis disputes, property disputes of one party to the divorce case, corporate bankruptcy disputes, company division (merger) disputes, trademark disputes involving well-known trademarks, divorce and separation involving demolition and relocation Analyzing property, inheritance, housing purchase and sale contract disputes, purchase and sale contracts involving macro-control policies such as house purchase restrictions and motor vehicle allocation index adjustments, and disputes over debt settlement are areas that are prone to false litigation.
The people's courts at all levels should focus on the above-mentioned cases, strictly review them, and intensify their efforts to rectify false litigation.
5. Adhere to classified implementation of policies and improve the effectiveness of rectification.
Where the people’s court determines that it is a false litigation, if the plaintiff applies to withdraw the litigation, the application shall not be granted, and the litigation request shall be rejected in accordance with the provisions of Article 112 of the Civil Procedure Law.
Those who engage in false litigation or create a series of false litigation cases with bad circumstances, serious consequences, or multiple false litigation cases shall be punished intensified.
If a false lawsuit infringes on the civil rights and interests of others, the perpetrator shall be liable for compensation.
If the people’s court discovers that a false lawsuit is suspected of committing a crime in the course of handling a case, it shall promptly transfer relevant materials to the criminal investigation agency in accordance with the law; if a public official or personnel of a state-owned enterprise or institution creates or participates in a false lawsuit, it shall notify the unit or supervisory agency to which it belongs; lawyers, Basic-level legal service workers, appraisers, notaries, etc. who make or participate in false litigation may issue judicial suggestions to relevant administrative departments and industry associations to urge timely administrative punishment or industry punishment.
Judicial personnel who use their powers to participate in false litigation shall be severely punished in accordance with the law, and if a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be strictly investigated in accordance with the law.
6. Strengthen case screening and make warnings.
At the stage of filing a case, information systems such as the auxiliary system for filing a case and the China Judgment Document Network can be used to retrieve whether the parties to the case have related cases, and to verify the identity information of the parties.
If the parties have multiple outstanding cases, related cases, or discover other possible false litigation situations, the party's information shall be verified emphatically.
If a false litigation is found to be suspected, the perpetrator shall be warned and marked in the case handling system to remind the trial and enforcement departments to focus on the case that there may be a risk of false litigation.
Seven, persist in taking multiple measures simultaneously to ascertain the facts of the case.
In hearing cases suspected of false litigation, the parties and witnesses shall be required to sign a letter of guarantee before questioning the parties or before the witnesses testify.
The letter of guarantee shall contain factual statements and willingness to accept punishment if any false statements are made.
If the party with the burden of proof refuses to appear in court, refuses to be questioned, or refuses to sign the letter of guarantee, and the facts to be proved lack other evidence to prove, the facts claimed shall not be determined.
If the witness refuses to sign the letter of guarantee, he shall not testify and bear the relevant expenses.
In cases suspected of harming the national interest, social public interest, or the lawful rights and interests of others through false litigation, the people's court shall investigate and collect relevant evidence to ascertain the basic facts of the case.
8. Carefully review the mediation agreement to ensure that it is true and legal.
If the parties have no substantive disputes over the subject matter of the litigation and voluntarily reach a mediation agreement and apply for the people’s court to issue a mediation statement, they shall examine whether the content of the agreement conforms to the basic facts of the case, whether it violates legal provisions, whether it involves the interests of persons outside the case, and whether it circumvents national policies.
If the mediation agreement involves the content of the confirmation of rights, a decision on whether to issue a mediation statement shall be made on the basis of ascertaining the ownership of the rights.
It is not only on the grounds that the parties can voluntarily dispose of civil rights and interests, to lower the review standards for the authenticity and legitimacy of the legal relationship involved in the mediation agreement, and in particular, pay attention to the review of whether the mediation agreement harms the national interest, social public interest, or the legitimate rights and interests of others.
If the parties reach a mediation agreement before litigation and apply for judicial confirmation, the mediation agreement shall focus on examining whether the mediation agreement violates the mandatory provisions of laws and administrative regulations, violates public order and good customs, or infringes on the national interest, social public interest, or the lawful rights and interests of others; the content of the mediation agreement before litigation Where the confirmation of property rights or intellectual property rights is involved, it shall be ruled not to accept, and if it has already been accepted, it shall be ruled to reject the application.
9. Strictly enforce the law to prevent false lawsuits.
In the implementation of objections, reconsiderations, participation in distribution and other procedures, the investigation and punishment of false lawsuits should be strengthened.
Circumstances where false litigation may occur should be focused on review.
In terms of the subject of the litigation, the degree of relevance between the evidence and the facts of the case, and the connection between the various evidences, comprehensively review the authenticity of the facts of the case and the legal relationship, and comprehensively judge whether there is any objection to the subject of execution with fabricated facts, application for participation in distribution, or other aspects Acts that lead to wrong enforcement by the people's courts.
For cases suspected of false litigation, the parties and witnesses shall be summoned to court and inquire about the facts of the relevant case.
Actively explain to the parties the legal consequences of participating in false litigation, and guide the parties to litigate in good faith.
A case determined to be a false litigation shall be ruled not to be accepted or the application shall be rejected; if it has been accepted, its request shall be ruled to be rejected.
10. Strengthen enforcement review and strictly investigate false non-litigation legal documents.
Focus on preventing actions based on non-litigation legal documents such as false arbitration awards, arbitration mediation documents, and notarized creditor's rights documents.
In the execution of non-litigation legal documents, if the parties are suspected of obtaining effective legal documents through malicious collusion, fabricating facts, etc., to apply for enforcement, strict substantive examinations shall be carried out in accordance with the law.
Intensify the efforts to obtain evidence according to the authority, and examine and determine whether the relevant legal documents are false in combination with the relationship between the parties, the facts of the case, the arbitration and notarization process, and whether it harms the national interest, social public interest, or the legitimate rights and interests of others.
In the case of the above-mentioned circumstances, it shall be ruled not to execute it in accordance with the law, and judicial advice may be issued to the arbitration institution or notary office when necessary.
11. Strengthen evidence review, investigate and deal with false enforcement objections.
Enforcement of objections is an area where false lawsuits are currently growing rapidly. We must attach great importance to the importance and urgency of preventing and punishing false lawsuits in enforcement of objections.
To correctly allocate the burden of proof, whether it is an execution objection lawsuit by a person outside the case or an execution objection lawsuit by the person applying for execution, the person outside the case should bear the burden of proof for the civil rights and interests that the person outside the case enjoys sufficient to exclude compulsory execution.
Strictly review the authenticity, legitimacy, and relevance of the evidence in the entire case. For cases suspected of false litigation, the rights and interests of those outside the case can be strictly reviewed by summoning people outside the case to make statements, notifying the parties to submit original evidence, and investigating and verifying ex-officio Authenticity and legality.
12. Clarify the legal relationship and prevent malicious collusion to evade enforcement.
The enforcement objection lawsuit involves multiple legal relationships between the three parties. The conflict of interest mainly occurs between the person outside the case and the person applying for execution. The person subject to execution should be cautiously affirmed on the facts related to the rights and interests of the person involved in the case.
If the person subject to execution has a family relationship, an association relationship, and other interests with the person outside the case, and supports each other in the litigation, and lacks sufficient evidence to prove that the person outside the case has civil rights and interests sufficient to exclude compulsory execution, the person outside the case should not support the claim of the person outside the case.
If a person outside the case filed an enforcement objection based on a legal document made after the execution subject has been seized, detained, or frozen, and claims to exclude compulsory execution, he should pay attention to the fact that there is malicious collusion between the parties.
13. Strengthen screening and investigation to prevent false private lending lawsuits.
Private lending is a relatively active area of false litigation. It is necessary to carefully review private lending cases, and accurately identify, strictly prevent, and severely punish false private lending litigation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Private Lending Cases .
In private lending cases suspected of false litigation, if the parties claim to pay large loans in cash, they should review the details of the lender’s cash source, withdrawal voucher, delivery status, etc., and take into account the lender’s financial ability, local transaction habits, and transaction process. Whether it is consistent with common sense and other facts to determine the lending relationship.
If the parties claim that large amounts of borrowings should be paid through transfers, they should examine whether there are “closed-loop” transfers, revolving transfers, and dark cash repayments of open-account loans.
If the plaintiff who bears the burden of proof refuses to appear in court without justified reasons, and the basic facts of the case such as lending behavior, loan amount, payment method, etc. cannot be confirmed by the existing evidence, the facts claimed by the plaintiff shall not be determined.
14. Strictly check the principal and interest of loans, and rectify illegal private loans in accordance with the law.
For private lending cases suspected of false litigation, the focus should be on the authenticity of the lending relationship, the amount of principal borrowing, and the scope of interest protection.
Those who fabricate private lending relationships, evade enforcement, or evade debts, should not support the plaintiff’s claims.
Where the principal of a loan is inflated by means of "breaking interest", forged evidence, etc., the amount of the principal of the loan shall be determined based on the actual loan amount of the lender.
Those who engage in usury under the name of "penalty interest", "liquidated damages", "service fees", "intermediary fees", "guarantee money", and "delay fees" will not be protected for interest exceeding the legal limit of interest rate protection.
15. Strictly examine the validity of contracts, and rectify false housing purchase and sale lawsuits.
For illegal purposes such as evading debts, evading execution, obtaining illegal demolition benefits, and evading macro-control policies, and fictitiously file a lawsuit against the relationship between the purchase and sale of houses, the contract shall be deemed invalid.
If the buyer fictitiously participates in the judicial auction of real estate with the fictitious qualifications of buying a house and the bid is successful, and the parties or interested parties claim that the auction is invalid on the grounds of violating public order and good customs, they shall be supported.
If the buyer's fictitious qualification to purchase a house results in the invalidation of the auction, he shall be liable for compensation in accordance with the law.
16. The right to persist in investigating false and correcting errors and relieving victims in accordance with the law.
For cases suspected of false litigation, persons who may be interested in the outcome of the case may be notified to participate in the litigation as a third party.
For false litigation cases investigated and handled, the effective judgment of false litigation cases shall be corrected in accordance with the law.
For false litigation cases that cause losses to others, if the victim requests the perpetrator of the false litigation to bear the liability for compensation, it shall be supported.
The extent of the liability of the perpetrator of the false litigation can be determined based on factors such as the size of the fault, the severity of the circumstances, and the size of the victim's loss.
17. Determine the crime in accordance with the law, and strictly investigate the criminal responsibility of false litigation.
False litigation behavior that meets the conviction standards set by the criminal law and judicial interpretations shall be recognized as false litigation crimes and other crimes in accordance with the law, and the perpetrator shall be strictly investigated for criminal responsibility.
Those who commit false litigation crimes, illegally occupy other people’s property or evade legal debts, and constitute crimes of fraud, embezzlement, refusal to execute judgments, convictions, corruption, etc., shall be convicted and severely punished according to the heavier crime.
For the principal offender with the most prominent guilt in the false litigation and joint crime committed by multiple persons, and the defendant who has a false litigation, illegal or criminal record, committing a false litigation crime again, it is necessary to fully embody the scope of strictness, control of probation, and exemption from criminal punishment.
18. Maintain a high-pressure situation and severely punish "routine loans" false litigation crimes.
To promptly identify and severely crack down on false litigation and criminal activities in "routine loans" in accordance with the law, and those that meet the criteria for the identification of underworld forces shall be identified in accordance with the law.
All property obtained by the defendant illegally obtained by the "routine loan" shall be recovered or ordered to be refunded, and the property rights of the victim shall be protected in accordance with the law.
Maintain a high-pressure and severe crackdown on false lawsuits and crimes of "routine loans", take the lawful and severe crackdown on false lawsuits and crimes of "routine loans" as an important part of the normalized fight against evil, and earnestly safeguard the judicial order and the legitimate rights and interests of the people. Meet the people's psychological expectations for fairness and justice.
19. Do a good job of procedural convergence and maintain criminal and civil coordination.
If the actions of a party in a civil litigation are deemed to constitute a crime of a false litigation after trial, the people's court that made an effective criminal judgment shall promptly write to the people's court that tried or executed the civil case.
If the effective criminal judgment determines that it constitutes a false litigation crime, the relevant people's court shall promptly initiate trial supervision procedures in accordance with the law to correct the relevant civil judgments, rulings, and mediation documents.
The parties or persons outside the case who apply for retrial of an effective civil judgment, ruling, or mediation statement on the grounds that the effective criminal judgment constitutes a false litigation crime shall be reviewed in a timely manner in accordance with the law.
20. Strengthen team building and improve rectification capabilities.
People’s courts at all levels should promptly organize court officers to learn and master various central and local economic and social policies; include the identification and investigation of false litigation into the scope of judge training; improve judge selection through various forms such as typical case analysis, trial business exchanges, court trial observations, etc. And the judicial ability to investigate and deal with false litigation; strictly implement the judicial responsibility system, deal with the court staff involved in false litigation strictly in accordance with regulations and disciplines, and build a loyal, clean and responsible people's court team.
Court staff who use their powers to conduct false litigation with others and constitute a false litigation crime shall be severely punished in accordance with the law, and if they constitute other crimes at the same time, they shall be convicted and severely punished in accordance with the provisions for heavier punishments.
Court staff improperly perform their duties, neglect their duties, cause false litigation cases to enter the proceedings, cause major losses to public property, national and people’s interests, and meet the criminal constitutive requirements of the Criminal Law, shall be based on the crime of negligence, execution of judgments, and rulings of negligence Conviction and punishment for crimes and other crimes.
Twenty-one. Strengthen cooperation and coordination to form a combined force for rectification.
People's courts at all levels should actively explore the establishment and improvement of information sharing mechanisms for false litigation cases, the transfer mechanism of false litigation and criminal clues, the coordination and punishment mechanism of false litigation, criminal and civil cross cases, and the rectification of false litigation with the people's procuratorates, public security organs, judicial administrative organs and other functional departments. Joint meeting mechanism and other working mechanisms; division of labor and responsibility with various political and legal units, and communication and cooperation, to promote the establishment of information interconnection and sharing, orderly connection of procedures, rectification coordination and cooperation, system consultation and joint construction of false litigation rectification work structure.
Twenty-two. Exploring credit punishment and assisting the building of creditworthiness.
People's courts at all levels should actively explore the establishment of a "blacklist" system for false lawsuits.
Establish an information database of the list of dishonest persons in false litigation, automatically identify false litigants' information in the "initiation, trial, and enforcement" links, and provide automatic prompts and early warnings to case-handling personnel, and remind case-handling personnel to conduct key review of related cases.
Actively explore the public disclosure of false litigation personnel list and credit punishment mechanism, strive to connect with the information database of credit reporting agencies, and promote the construction of a social credit system.
Increase the illegal cost of false litigants through credit punishment, actively create a legal environment in the whole society that dares, cannot, and does not want to make false litigation, helps build a trustworthy society, and guarantees the stable, orderly and efficient development of the market economy.
Twenty-three. Carry out law popularization and promote the integrity of litigation.
People's courts at all levels must implement the requirements of the law popularization responsibility system of "who enforces the law, popularize the law", give full play to the advantages of the people's courts in handling cases, deeply analyze typical cases of false litigation, promptly announce to the whole society, increase publicity, and promote honesty and credibility The principle of civil litigation demonstrates the determination of the people's courts to severely crack down on false litigation, enhances the society's awareness of preventing false litigation and illegal activities, and forms a powerful deterrent to false litigation activities.
Through platforms such as the litigation service hall, litigation service network, 12368 hotline, mobile micro court, and the "People's Court Civil Litigation Risk Reminder" and other channels, inform the obligation of good faith litigation, clarify the legal liability of false litigation, and guide the parties to litigate in good faith in accordance with the law. The concepts of fair justice, law-abiding by all people, and honesty and trustworthiness are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Twenty-four. These opinions shall come into effect on November 10, 2021.
Supreme People's Court
November 4, 2021