More trials conducted online during pandemic

The number of online trials in Shanghai grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, according to a report issued by the Shanghai High People’s Court on Tuesday.

City courts received over 2.6 million applications for litigation services over the Internet last year, and the ratio of cases established online rose to 73.3 percent from 20 percent previously, it said.

The number of courts in Shanghai that support online trials was increased to 274 from the previous 26, with over 40,000 trials held online last year, according to the report.

Overall, courts in Shanghai handled 874,000 cases last year, with 869,000 closed by the end of the year. Local judges handled 307 cases each on average.

The courts handled 224,000 commercial cases of the first instance last year, a 7.6 percent rise from the previous year.

A total of 3,225 civil and commercial cases of the first instance with overseas parties involved were handled last year.

The number of intellectual property cases of the first instance handled in Shanghai courts totaled 37,000, a 60.2 percent rise from the previous year.

The number of serious criminal cases, including murder, robbery and kidnap, handled last year dropped to 557, while a total of 29,000 criminal cases were handled.

The courts also handled 107 duty-related crimes, with 125 people convicted, eight of whom were at bureau level or above.

They also handled 1,310 economic criminal cases involving mass victims, including those of illegal absorbing public funds, illegal fundraising and Internet scams.

Meanwhile, 11,000 people were restricted from purchasing real estate properties, working as top executives of companies or taking part in bidding for construction projects for failing to execute the courts’ rulings, and 29,000 such people previously blacklisted were removed from the list.

In a separate report, the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate said that it handled 438 criminal cases of impediments to pandemic control last year, with 569 suspects involved.