Judicial mini program to be more accessible, useful

The quality of legal services provided through a mini program on popular instant messaging tool WeChat, will be improved to meet increasing demand, an official with the country's top court told media on Tuesday.

Sun Fuhui, deputy director of the Information Center at the Supreme People's Court, said it plans to link several online platforms, including those dealing with mediation, case filing and the delivery of rulings, to create unified access via the WeChat mini program for nationals.

Sun said the move comes as part of implementing a 45-article regulation on the online operation of courts, which will take effect on March 1.

So far, more than 11.70 million case filings have been accepted through the mini program, which was created by the Supreme People's Court in 2019, and it has become a major channel for online litigation and legal services.

Xu Jianfeng, head of the center, also called on courts to fully make use of information technology, including the internet, big data, clouding, mobile network, artificial intelligence and blockchain, in promoting legal services to help litigants with disputes and improve judicial efficiency.

While requiring courts to offer litigants greater convenience, Xu also ordered they pay close attention to the safety of judicial data and strengthen efforts to maintain network systems.

Whether cases should be dealt with online or off should depend on litigants and be in line with regulations, he said.