The “Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law” (2022 Amendment) has been come into force from 10 April, 2022.

Regarding the amendment to the “Civil Procedure Law” on 24 December, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court released the “Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law” (2022 Amendment) on 1 April, 2022, which has come into force from 10 April, 2022. Compared with the previous version in 2020, the “2022 Amendment” has amended 13 provisions, and deleted 2 provisions.

Hereinafter we would like to introduce those provisions that enterprises might be involved.

  1. The period of summary procedure trial after extension shall not exceed four months cumulatively.

Article 258 of “2022 Amendment” stipulated that, “as for a case to which the summary procedure applies, the period of trial after extension shall not exceed four months cumulatively…….” Compared with version 2020, the maxima period of summary procedure trial after extension has been changed from 6 months to 4 months.

  1. An oral verdict could be applied to all objections during a summary procedure.

Article 269 and 281 prescribed that where any party raises an objection to the application of the summary procedure to a case, or the trial of a small claim, the court could make an oral verdict only when such objections are rejected, and such oral verdict shall be recorded in writing. However, the “2022 Amendment” adds that an oral verdict could be made if the objection is supported, and the summary procedure could change to the ordinary procedure.

  1. Regarding the mediation

(1) Article 61 of the “2022 Amendment” stipulates that, “in the event that both parties reach an agreement on a dispute between them after mediation by the people’s mediation committee or any other duly established mediation agency, if one party fails to perform the mediation agreement, and the other party files a lawsuit with a people’s court, the counterparty shall be the defendant.” Compared with version 2020, despite the people’s mediation committee, it adds other duly established mediation agencies as the subject which could in charge of a mediation.

(2) Article 352 of the “2022 Amendment” stipulates that, “with regard to a mediation conducted by two or more mediation organizations themselves, the people’s court in the location of any of the said mediation organizations conforming to the provisions of Article 201 of the Civil Procedures Law shall have jurisdiction over it. Both parties may jointly make an application to the people’s court in the location of any of the said mediation organizations conforming to the provisions of Article 201 of the Civil Procedures Law and having jurisdiction; where both parties jointly make an application to two or more people’s courts with jurisdiction, the application shall come under the jurisdiction of the people’s court which places the case on the docket first.” Compared with version 2020, it deletes the restriction of the level of the court on the confirmation of the mediation agreement, which is corresponding with the level of the court on the jurisdiction of normal civil disputes.