The Present Situation And Improvement Of Small Claims Procedure

With the development of Chinese socialist market economy and increased legal awareness of citizens, legal position in the social life has become increasingly prominent. The numbers of cases that the count accepted surges, litigation disputes types diversified and the procedures varied the degree of difficulty. Following the same trial procedure for the different litigation disputes without classification inevitably leads to the waste of judicial resources and litigation costs increasing, and sometimes delay the trial of the case. The small claims procedure is established in 2012 in our country to solved the contradiction between the increased number of the cases and the the limited judicial resources. On the one hand the civil cases are classified according to their sophistication to allocate the judicial resources rationally, on the other hand it provides a simple, fast and low-cost dispute resolution method for the public that made the ordinary citizens can safeguard the legitimate rights and interests in time, thus achieved the popularity of justice.In this dissertation, by conduct the research of the situation of small claims procedure applied in grassroots people’s courts of NanChang city, judicial practice is concluded. Research has found that the operation of small claims procedure did not meet the expected positive effects:low applicable ratio, high concentrated types, negative attitude of the court and the litigants.This paper argues that, as a new judicial system, small claims procedure is unfamiliar to the general public. At the same time, First instance Final Appeal System is contrary to the litigation habits and ideals of ordinary people. The unfamiliar and doubt to the small claims procedure affect the applying enthusiasm of ordinary people. The count affected by the ideal of the traditional trial habits and First instance Final Appeal System would lead to petition, enthusiasm for applying the small claims procedure is not high. To solve these questions, the small claims procedure legislation should be further improved, establish independent small litigation and broaden its relief channels. Strengthen propaganda, made the ordinary people familiar with the small claims procedure to improve its applicability. A special small claims court can be established for the convenient of the litigants. The dissertation consists of 4 parts:Part I is the overview for the small claims procedure, introduce the characteristic and legislative status of the small claims procedure. Part II is the investigation for the application of the small claims procedure within Nanchang grassroots courts; learn the operation effort of the small claims procedure in judicial Practice. Part III is to analyze the existing problems in applying the small claims procedure in judicial practice. Part IV make some recommendations for the problems encountered in applying the small claims procedure...