[Permalink] Chinese Court Trial via QQ (12/22/2006) (yWeekend) In early 2006, a female plaintiff in Gaoqiao, Fujian province filed suit against her husband. According to her, he had gone to Shenzhen for his business three or four years ago and has not come back. He is alleged to have a new girlfriend. The Gaoqiao court then attempted to locate the man. The man's family said that they did not know how to reach him and local newspaper notices obviously did not work. The judge Yu Lungbin tried one more time to talk to his sister and informed her that the defendant will lose certain legal rights because a judgment may be automatically issued against him in his absence. The judge then left behind his business card.
Late afternoon on April 23, the defendant called the judge from Shenzhen. The man still did not want to come to court and he mentioned that he was planning to open up an Internet bar. So the judge quickly offered his QQ number to the plaintiff and arranged for a video conference. When the judge saw the defendant, he recognized him as a convicted thief whose trial the judge had once attended as a jurist. Thus, he understood why the man was reluctant to return. The judge then proceeded with some small talk (e.g. about the plaintiff's current status, etc). While the man ultimately agreed to attend the trial, it was too late because the trial was scheduled to begin at 8:30am the next morning. Then the judge was struck by an inspiration: "Why don't we hold the trial tomorrow via QQ video conference?"
On April 24, 2006, a trial was held in a court in Gaoqiao, Fujian province. The female plaintiff was present at court, while the male defendant was in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The communication method was video conferencing via QQ. This is believed to be the first such case in China.
Judge: Plaintiff, is the person that you see on the monitor the defendant?
Plaintiff: Yes.
Judge: Defendant, is the person that you see on the monitor the plaintiff?
Defendant: Yes.
These are standard questions in any court (except for the bit about the monitor). The court trial then proceeded and ended with an agreement to have mediation.
From April to now, the Gaoqiao court has handled four cases of divorce/alimony via QQ video conferencing. Next week, there will be the first international case in which the defendant is in Peru.
La ligne a interet a etre stable...
Et pour le juge : "Silence, ou je debranche le cable reseau !"
Merci a Michael pour le lien !