From August 23, 2022

Small claims

PART 01 Notice Content

PART 02 实施细则

Shanghai Higher People’s Court

Rules for the Implementation of the Trial of Small Claims

General

1. The trial of small claims should be based on simplifying civil procedures, hearing small claims fairly and efficiently, reducing litigants’ litigation burden, timely safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of litigants, rapidly stabilizing civil relations, and promoting social harmony.

2. For simple civil cases involving payment of money with clear facts, clear rights and obligations, little dispute and the amount of the object of dispute being less than 50% of the average annual salary of Shanghai’s employees in the previous year, small claims procedure shall be applied.

3. For a simple civil case of payment of money that meets other conditions specified in the Detailed Rules, and the amount of the subject matter of the lawsuit exceeds 50% of the average annual salary of Shanghai’s employees in the previous year but is less than twice the amount, if the parties agree to apply the small amount litigation procedure, the small amount litigation procedure shall apply.

4. If the parties change their claims during the trial of a small claims lawsuit, and the amount of the subject matter after the change is more than 50% but less than twice the average annual salary of the employees in Shanghai last year, the people’s court shall explain to both parties whether they agree to continue to apply the small claims lawsuit. If no objection is raised by any of the parties, the people’s court shall make a written record, and both parties can continue to apply the small claims procedure after signing for confirmation.

5. The people’s court shall not apply the small claim procedure to the following civil cases: (1) cases of personal relations and property confirmation; （2） Cases involving foreign affairs, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan; （3） Cases that need to be evaluated, appraised or audited or have objections to the pre litigation evaluation, appraisal or audit results; （4） A case in which the whereabouts of one party is unknown; （5） A case in which a party raises a counterclaim; （6） Cases involving group litigation or involving the rights and interests of many parties; （7） Cases with significant social impact within the jurisdiction; （8） Cases where conflicts are likely to intensify; （9） Other cases that are not suitable for small claims proceedings.

• Filing a case

6. The plaintiff can write the indictment by himself or use the element and form indictment.

7. Each grass-roots people’s court shall set up a special bulletin board for small claims proceedings in the filing hall, and place a small claims procedure guide. If conditions permit, the basic people’s court can also set up a special filing window for small claims, establish a green channel for small claims, and be responsible for filing and consulting.

In order to improve the trial efficiency of small claims cases, highlight the economic and convenient characteristics of small claims proceedings, and encourage parties to file cases online.

8. The people’s court shall generally register and file a civil case in which the parties sue that meets the requirements of small claims procedure on the day they receive the prosecution materials, and inform the trial organization, the final instance of the first instance, the trial period, the trial method, the payment of litigation costs, the right to apply for retrial and other related matters by sending the Notice on Small Claims Procedure and other means.

The people’s court shall, within five days from the date of filing the case, send the defendant a copy of the bill of complaint, the Notice on Small Claims Procedure and other litigation materials.

9. For civil cases that meet the requirements of small claims procedure, the people’s court shall still list the case number in the current way, but shall mark “small claims” in the unified mode in the trial process management system.

10. If a party raises a jurisdictional objection to a small claims case, the people’s court shall review it and make a corresponding ruling based on whether the objection is established. The ruling shall take effect as soon as it is made.

11. If the parties have objections to the application of the small claims procedure, they shall raise them before the hearing. After examination, if the people’s court finds that the objection is tenable, it shall apply other provisions of summary procedure to try the case or make a ruling to convert it to ordinary procedure; If the objection is not tenable, it shall be rejected by a ruling. If an order is made orally, it shall be recorded in writing.

12. If the people’s court finds that the small claims procedure is not suitable for the case in the process of trial, it shall apply other provisions of summary procedure for trial, or make a ruling to convert the case to ordinary procedure.

13. All grassroots people’s courts should do a good job in the connection between the litigation mediation docking center and the trial of small claims proceedings. For civil disputes that meet the conditions of small claims procedure and enter the litigation mediation docking center, the case shall be filed as a small claims case if there are the following circumstances: (1) the parties require the people’s court to issue a mediation statement after reaching an agreement through mediation before litigation; (2) The parties clearly expressed their unwillingness to continue mediation during the pre litigation mediation process, or the mediation has not been successful for more than 30 days since the date of dispute acceptance, and the parties are unwilling to extend the mediation period.

14. For civil cases that are subject to small claims procedure, the case shall be transferred to the designated judge on the day of filing, which shall not exceed two working days at the latest.

•Trial

15. Civil cases that apply small claims procedure shall be tried by a judge with rich trial experience and comprehensive professional quality alone.

16. For civil cases to which the small claims procedure is applied, if the parties expressly give up the legal consequences of giving up the time limit for adducing evidence and the time limit for defending after the people’s court has informed them of giving up the legal consequences of the time limit for adducing evidence and the time limit for defending, the court may hold a hearing immediately.

If the parties expressly express that they will not give up the time limit for adducing evidence, the parties may agree on the time limit for adducing evidence by themselves and obtain the permission of the people’s court or the people’s court determines the time limit for adducing evidence, which generally does not exceed seven days.

If the parties expressly express that they will not abandon the period of defense, the people’s court may, on the basis of obtaining their consent, reasonably determine the period of defense, which shall not exceed 15 days at most.

17. In the trial of civil cases with small claims procedure, the parties can be summoned and witnesses can be notified at any time by taking a message, telephone, SMS, fax, e-mail and other simple ways, and the time for questioning witnesses can be flexibly arranged. The people’s court may grant permission to a party who applies to question a witness by online or other means if it deems it appropriate after examination.

18. When applying small claims procedure to civil cases, the litigation guidance should be strengthened, requiring the parties to bring all evidence and notify the witnesses to appear in court. The court trial procedure can be appropriately simplified, without distinguishing between the stages of court investigation and court debate. In principle, the trial will be concluded in one court.

The people’s court may adopt online litigation for small claims, and apply the reform of court hearing records to court hearing, unless the parties expressly disagree.

Referee

19. The civil cases to be tried through small claims procedure shall be concluded within two months from the date of filing. If it is necessary to extend it under special circumstances, it may be extended for one month with the approval of the president in charge.

20. When applying small claims procedure to civil cases, the principle of mediation priority should be implemented. The parties can be organized to mediate in various links before, during and after the court, so as to promote the parties to choose a way of closing the case other than the judgment, so as to achieve the unity of legal and social effects. If mediation fails or the parties are unwilling to mediate, a decision shall be made in a timely manner.

21. The application of small claims procedure to civil cases can further simplify the judgment documents by referring to the summary procedure, mainly recording the basic information of the parties, claims, defense opinions, main facts, brief reasons for the judgment, basis for the judgment, main text of the judgment, notice of the final instance of the first instance, etc.

For cases with simple facts and clear application of the law, the judge can make a decision in court and explain the reasons for the decision. For cases adjudicated in court, if the adjudication process is completely recorded by audio and video recordings or transcripts of court trials, the people’s court may no longer specify the reasons for the adjudication when making the adjudication documents.

22. When applying the small claims procedure to civil cases, it is generally necessary to pronounce a judgment in court and serve legal documents in court, unless the people’s court deems it inappropriate to pronounce a judgment in court. If it is indeed impossible to serve legal documents in court under special circumstances, the legal documents shall be sent within seven days after the judgment is pronounced.

23. The civil cases shall be heard in small claims procedure, and the acceptance fee shall be charged by piece, 10 yuan for each piece. If the case is concluded through mediation or the party applies for withdrawal of the lawsuit and the people’s court gives permission, the case shall be exempted.

•Program conversion

24. The people’s court shall strictly control the conversion to other procedures when applying the small claims procedure to try civil cases. Except for the circumstances specified in the Detailed Rules, the conversion of procedures is generally not allowed to ensure the stability of the application of procedures.

For civil cases that are not suitable for small claims procedure, the people’s court shall strictly follow the standard and apply other provisions of summary procedure for trial, or make a ruling to convert them to ordinary procedure. After conversion, the audit limit is calculated continuously.

25. When the people’s court applies small claims procedure to try civil cases, if the following circumstances exist and the conditions for application of summary procedure are met, other provisions of summary procedure shall apply:

(1) The party concerned changes the claim during the trial of the case. If the amount of the subject matter of the lawsuit only changes, and the amount of the subject matter after the change exceeds 50% but is less than twice the average annual salary of the employees in Shanghai last year, the people’s court explains to both parties whether they agree to continue to apply the small amount litigation procedure, and the parties expressly disagree;

(2) The party concerned changes the claim during the trial of the case, such as the change of the amount of the subject matter of the lawsuit only, and the amount of the subject matter after the change exceeds twice the average annual salary of the employees in Shanghai last year; (3) The parties change their claims during the trial of the case, and the non pecuniary payment claims are added to the changed claims; (4) A party raises a counterclaim during the trial of a case; (5) It is necessary to assess, identify and audit; (6) Other circumstances where it is inappropriate to continue to apply the small claims procedure.

Before the case is transferred to other provisions of summary procedure for trial, the facts confirmed by both parties may not be adduced or cross examined.

26. If the people’s court finds that it is not appropriate to apply small claims procedure or other provisions of summary procedure to the trial of civil cases in the process of applying small claims procedure to the trial of civil cases, it shall submit a written report to the president in charge for approval. After approval, it shall make a ruling to transfer the case to ordinary procedure.

Before the case is transferred to the ordinary procedure, the facts confirmed by both parties may not be adduced or cross examined.

•Trial supervision

27. If a party believes that there is an error in the judgment, ruling or mediation statement of a legally effective small claim case, he may apply to the original people’s court for retrial in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Law and the relevant judicial interpretations of the Civil Procedure Law on the trial supervision procedure.

28. The party applies for retrial on the ground that the small claims procedure should not be applied in the original trial. If the reason for the application of the party is justified after examination, the party shall order a retrial and form a collegial panel to hear the case. The parties to a retrial judgment or order may appeal.

A party applies for retrial on the grounds other than that the original trial should not apply to the small claims procedure. After examination, if the party’s application is justified, a retrial order shall be made and a collegial panel shall be formed to hear the case. The parties may not appeal against the retrial judgment or order made.

•Supplementary Provisions

29. In the first half of each year, the Shanghai Higher People’s Court shall publish the amount standard of annual small claims from the date of promulgation to the date of the next issuance according to the annual average wage standard of the city’s employees in the previous year issued by the relevant departments of Shanghai.

30. The Rules shall come into force as of the date of promulgation (June 30, 2022).