Tech helps ease burden of paperwork on Chinese judges

A high-tech platform is helping Chinese judges cut back on routine paperwork, leaving more time to focus on individual cases.

The system, which was upgraded on Wednesday, allows judges to complete eight legal tasks using artificial intelligence and big data analysis, according to its designer, Thunisoft.

For example, the AI word-recognition system can skim multitudes of court records to provide quick case summaries for judges.

“The time that judges spend reading case materials can be reduced, and they will have more time to study legal issues and precedents,” said Wu Chenqiang, Thunisoft’s marketing manager.

He said judges can also receive indictments and check cases filed through the platform’s WeChat account.

Of China’s more than 3,500 courts, 1,711 now use the Thunisoft platform to simplify work procedures, according to Sun Fuhui, deputy director of the Supreme People’s Court’s information center.

She said she believes the upgraded platform will make court proceedings even more efficient and further help deal with a rising number of cases.

A work report delivered by the SPC in March said Chinese courts have heard nearly 89 million cases over the past five years, but the number of judges was only about 120,000.

The gap means judges are unable to effectively handle the massive caseload, said Zhou Qiang, president of the SPC, adding that is why it has been urging courts to use more technologies.

“The first step was to put our work online, and now we’re improving judicial efficiency through the upgraded platform,” Sun added. “In the future, we hope to get more accurate information through big data analysis.”