Research On The Application Status Of Small Claims Procedures And The Improvement Of Systems

At the beginning of the 21 st century,with the prosperity of the market economy,the types and number of disputes have also increased,and the increase awareness of citizens’ rights has led to a large number of disputes pouring into the courts.The judicial costs of applying the summary procedure to a large number of simple cases are superior to the cases themselves.In order to alleviate this tension,the legislator believes that it is necessary to divert such simple cases from the simplified procedure and the ordinary procedure so that they can be resolved quickly through a more simplified procedure than the simplified procedure.Therefore,the establishment of the small claims procedure can be said to be a simplified means promoted by legislators in order to alleviate the practical contradiction of “more cases but fewer judges” in the courts,with the purpose of diverting the procedures of the cases,including simple cases,and improving the efficiency of litigation through simplified trial procedures.In order to explore specific rules for the operation of small claims procedures,the Supreme People’s Court conducted preliminary pilot work on small claims procedures,thus laying the foundation for the establishment of small claims procedures by the legislature.After a year of pilot work,a special provision for small claims procedures were stipulated in the chapter on “Summary Procedures”.Due to the rough design of the legislation,it is difficult for small claims procedures to rely on a principled provision in practice,so “the Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law” refines the specific operating rules of small claims procedures to a certain extent.In addition to the functional expectations of the diversion of procedures for small claims procedures,so as to alleviate the actual burden of the courts,the legislators also claim that small claims procedures are an inclusive judicial resource for the people,with the intention of improving the people’s recognition of small claims procedures.However,in fact,since its inception,the application rate of small claims procedures in practice has been extremely low,which not only does not reflect the function of procedural diversion,but also fails to realize the value of providing universal justice for the people.In the course of practical operation,small claims procedures suffer from judicial dilemmas with a generally low application rate,and this paper analyzes the reasons for the low application rate of small claims procedures from the perspective of the subjects involved in the procedure.Judges’ concerns about the small claims procedure mainly stem from the implementation of the first-instance final trial system in this procedure,and the resulting pressure on retrial and litigation-related petitions is all piled up on the court of first instance or even the original judge,and the judge’s enthusiasm for application directly affects the overall application rate of the small claims process in practice.The parties’ desirability to the application of small claims procedures is inherently scarce,because the parties entering the litigation generally have antagonistic feelings,and the defendant generally does not agree to apply the small claims procedure;however,from the plaintiff’s point of view,the mechanism by which the small claims procedure does not allow the appeal does not dare to apply when the parties are not very sure of the success of the lawsuit.The reason for the low willingness of lawyers to represent small claims is that small claims have a low economic benefit to them.Furthermore,this paper analyzes the problems existing in small claims procedures from the institutional level,one is to put it in the chapter of summary procedures in the design of legal positioning,so that the legal positioning of small claims procedures is not clear;the other is to stipulate that the final trial of small claims procedures in the first instance does not design a normalized relief mechanism in a targeted manner,and the only retrial relief channel seriously ignores the interests of the parties.On December 28,2019,in accordance with the authorization of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,the Supreme People’s Court carried out pilot reform of the sorting of civil procedure in some pilot courts across the country,and will continue to improve the small claims procedure as one of its reform contents.The second part of this paper analyzes the effectiveness of the reform by sorting out the specific reform measures of the pilot reform of complicated and simple diversion of small claims procedures,and analyzing the application rate,case types,procedural conversions,and retrials of small claims procedures in the pilot reform work.The overall application rate of small claims procedures has improved,but the new problem that comes with increasing the way parties agree to apply small claims procedures is that the proportion of parties’ agreed application is very low.The types of applicable cases reflect the deviation of the main body of small claims procedures from the expectations of legislators.The conversion of small claims procedures reflects the problem of unclear boundaries between them and the summary procedures.And the analysis of the retrial of small claims procedures reflects the shortcomings of its relief mechanism.Based on the analysis of the problems existing in small claims procedures and the achievements of reform,the third part of this paper theoretically returns to the original design starting point of small claims procedures,discusses the value positioning of small claims procedures,and concludes that the legitimacy value of small claims procedures should be to ensure that parties use litigation equally.Secondly,this paper proposes to improve the small claims procedure from a legislative point of view.This includes formally granting small claims procedures an independent legal status,so that they appear in parallel with summary procedures and ordinary procedures.Besides,through the summary of the extraterritorial provisions on small claims procedures,it is suggested that China learn from Japan’s adjudication objections and add special relief channels for small claims procedures in addition to retrials.Thirdly,his paper put forward suggestions to ensure the smooth operation of small claims procedures from the perspective of judicial application,mainly including the following three points.The second suggestion is that lawyers should be allowed to represent them in small claims.The third recommendation is to reasonably regulate the excessive use of small claims procedures.Finally,this paper puts forward certain suggestions on supporting measures such as the trial organization,trial methods and procedural articulation of small claims procedures.“The new Civil Procedure Law” focuses on the design of specific rules for small claims procedures,but it has not changed the way of thinking of solving problems from the perspective of court,so there are still many omissions in the provisions on small claims procedures.Therefore,on this basis,the article finally reasonably looks forward to the development path of small claims procedures in the future,that is,to return to the concept of ensuring that parties use litigation equally to build a complete and independent small claims procedure system,taking into account the practical needs of procedural diversion and alleviating the judicial burden of the court,and finally presenting a reasonable situation in which the court actively uses and the parties are willing to use.