Solidly carry out special clean-up and rectification of long-term outstanding cases
The person in charge of the trial management office of the Supreme People's Court answers reporters' questions
□ Our reporter Zhang Chen
During the education and rectification of the second batch of political and legal teams across the country, the Supreme People's Court focused on the issue of "exceeding trial limits" reported by the masses, combined with the actual implementation of the trial, and carried out special clearing of long-term outstanding cases.
Recently, the person in charge of the Trial Management Office of the Supreme People's Court answered questions from reporters on relevant issues.
Improve the dynamic management of the ledger
Reporter: Please briefly introduce the basic situation of the people's court in clearing and rectifying long-term outstanding cases.
Answer: During the education and rectification of the second batch of political and legal teams across the country, the Supreme People’s Court strengthened the clearing of long-term outstanding litigation cases through evaluations, notifications, letter inquiries, interviews, etc., and required local courts to improve and improve the dynamic management of long-term outstanding cases. , Clear up the timetable and road map case by case, conduct pressure step by step, scientifically dispatch resources, refine the division of tasks, and assign responsibilities to individuals.
Looking at the overall situation, as of August 31, courts across the country have accepted 17,239,900 trial cases, 6,068,000 first enforcement cases, 66,900 outstanding litigation cases over one year, and 22,600 outstanding enforcement cases over one year. Pieces.
From September 1 to November 22, 2021, a total of 41,300 unsettled lawsuits for more than one year were cleared; 8321 long-term unsettled enforcement cases for more than one year were cleared.
From the perspective of the length of trial time, the average trial time of various main types of cases in the courts of various localities from January to October 2021 is: 67.44 days for civil first-instance cases (the statutory trial period is generally 6 months), and 64.31 days for civil second-instance cases (the statutory trial period is 3 Months), 44.59 days for criminal first-instance cases (the statutory trial period is generally two months), 61.49 days for criminal second-instance cases (the statutory trial period is two months), 103.88 days for administrative first-instance cases (the statutory trial period is 6 months), administrative second-instance cases 76.27 days (the statutory trial period is 3 months), 79.56 days (the statutory enforcement period is generally 6 months).
Control incremental digestion stock
Reporter: What are the reasons for the long-term outstanding case?
Answer: In accordance with the requirements for the education and rectification of the second batch of political and legal teams across the country, the Supreme People’s Court has carried out a special investigation on further rectifying illegal "exceeding trial limits", selecting litigation cases that have not been settled for more than two years as the focus, and comprehensively sorted out long-term outstanding cases. Existing problems and reasons.
In terms of the factors affecting the long-term outstanding cases, there were 8,632 lawsuits outstanding in courts across the country for more than two years, and the top five outstanding reasons were: 2812 cases involving difficult and complicated cases, epidemics, etc.; 2,248 cases involving evaluation, appraisal, and auditing. There are 1,418 cases waiting for the results of other courts; 642 cases are waiting for the results of criminal investigations; 544 cases are difficult for the parties to serve legal documents.
A case often contains multiple influencing factors.
Judging from the reasons that led to the long-term unsettled cases, the laws and judicial interpretations have procedurally stipulated for the examination and approval of various cases, but only stipulated that the application and the application period should be filed before the expiration of the trial period, but did not clearly mention it. Due to the application criteria, the trial period may be extended several times.
Some judges have insufficient ability to deal with new types and complex and difficult cases, lack of scientific planning for the trial of "difficult cases", and have a feeling of fear of difficulty, which has caused the trial time of "difficult cases" to be extended.
When handling cases, some judges did not provide sufficient guidance to litigants and were unable to effectively use professional skills to resolve disputes and resolve contradictions, resulting in excessively long trial limits.
Reporter: What effective measures have the people's courts taken to clean up and rectify long-term outstanding cases?
Answer: In recent years, the Supreme People’s Court has attached great importance to and intensified its efforts to clean up long-term outstanding cases, issued a number of systems and regulations, established a long-term outstanding litigation case clean-up mechanism and a long-term outstanding case management platform, regularly issued notifications, and strived to control Increase in long-term outstanding cases and digest the stock.
Local courts have explored in light of actual conditions and have accumulated some experience and practices in clearing up long-term outstanding cases.
For example, the Zhejiang Higher People's Court regularly carries out special activities to clean up long-term outstanding cases, and implements the dual responsibility system of "covering cases" and "supervising handling" of court leaders, and clearing up outstanding cases for more than one year.
As of mid-November 2021, the number of long-term outstanding cases in Zhejiang courts for more than one year dropped from 11,000 at the end of 2017 to 823.
The Higher People’s Court of Hunan Province issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Administration of Case Trial Time Limits (for Trial Implementation)", which supervised the handling of cases exceeding the trial time limit by issuing a letter of supervision from the president, interviewing the president or the law officer and other methods, and implemented a ledger. Management requires that the case be closed within a time limit, and the account number should be cancelled.
The number of outstanding cases in Hunan courts for more than one year has dropped by more than 80% compared with the end of 2018.
The Higher People's Court of Hubei Province issued the "Notice on Effectively Strengthening and Standardizing the Management of Nodes in the Trial Process", which puts forward standard requirements for the management of trial limits in the four nodes of case filing, case handling, case closure, and case circulation.
The Higher People's Court of Chongqing Municipality has formulated the "Regulations on Further Strict Implementation of the Trial Period System" to establish a supervision and management mechanism for cases that have not been settled after the processing time is too long and the maximum period of extension of the trial period has expired.
As of mid-November of this year, Chongqing courts had more than one year outstanding cases of 2,505, a decrease of 61% compared with the same period last year; a decrease of 33.6% compared with the beginning of this year.
Build a collaborative management mechanism
Reporter: In what ways will the Supreme People's Court proceed to resolve the long-term outstanding issues of the case?
Answer: The Supreme People’s Court will always adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, earnestly study and implement the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Party, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law, and treat long-term outstanding cases as a solution to the masses. The important content of the issue of "Emergency and Worry and Hope" effectively protects the litigation rights of the parties.
The first is to continuously improve the system and regulations for the management of trial limits.
In conjunction with the revision of the Civil Procedure Law, we will study and revise the Supreme People’s Court’s provisions on the trial period system, strictly regulate the processing period of various cases, unify the starting and ending standards for trial period calculations, and standardize the discretion of judges on trial periods.
Intensify the establishment and drafting of judicial interpretations in the enforcement field, further standardize enforcement actions, improve enforcement efficiency, and protect the interests of parties.
The second is to build a multi-subject, full-process, and multi-level supervision and management mechanism for the approval of limits.
Further clarify the supervision and management responsibilities of judges, trial management departments, and court presidents on trial limitation issues, strengthen coordination, form a joint force, and build a trial limitation supervision model for the coordinated management of managers and trialers.
Establish a normalized inspection system for the trial limitation issue, strengthen the supervision before, during and after the trial limitation, and effectively solve the problem of illegal extension and deduction of trial limitation.
Persons who delay the handling of the case in violation of the trial limits or delay handling the case due to gross negligence shall be held accountable in accordance with disciplines and regulations.
Improve the push notification function of the trial limit warning, optimize the extension and deduction of the trial limit online application and approval process, and realize the whole process of keeping track and intelligent supervision.
The third is to continuously improve the judicial ability of judges.
Further strengthen trial business training, and improve the ability of judges, judge assistants, and clerks to understand and use laws, regulations, and judicial interpretations, as well as judicial capabilities such as fact identification and procedure grasp.
Strengthen the education for the purpose of justice for the people and the professional ethics of judges, guide the judges to stand firm on the people’s position, increase the feelings of the people, start from the goal of making the people feel fair and just in every judicial case, and increase the sense of responsibility and urgency. Improve the quality and efficiency of case handling.
The fourth is to continuously increase the efforts to clean up long-term outstanding cases.
Through evaluation, notification, letter inquiries, interviews and other forms, strengthen the clearing of long-term outstanding cases, improve and improve the dynamic management of long-term outstanding cases, clarify the timetable and roadmap for clearing cases on a case-by-case basis, and conduct pressure and refinement step by step The tasks are divided and the responsibilities are assigned to people.
Deeply promote the rectification of the stubborn diseases of the execution line, give full play to the functions of “speed and slow separation” and “intensive management” of execution cases, and do a solid job in the review and rectification of the final case, the centralized cleanup of funds and materials, and continuously improve the efficiency of execution.