Courts keep up crackdown against defiant defendants

Shanghai's courts settled 105,500 cases last year in which defendants had refused to comply with court orders, Shanghai Higher People's Court announced Thursday.

The courts settled about 7 percent more of such cases than in 2011, bringing up their settlement rate to about 94 percent, according to the court.

The city's courts have taken measures to force defendants to pay what they owe in compensation or otherwise obey previous court orders, said Gu Weiqiang, deputy director of the Shanghai Higher People's Court.

For example, the higher court signed agreements with 33 local banks in 2012 so the city's courts can obtain the account information of defendants who refuse to pay court-ordered compensation, Gu said. The agreements allow the courts to track down the personal assets of deadbeat defendants and force them to pay what they owe.

"Those who disregard court orders can be detained and criminally charged under China's new Civil Procedure Law, which took effect at the beginning of this year. This will help the courts consolidate their authority," Gu said.

Local courts have detained 383 defendants for defying the court. They have charged 20 people with disobeying the court, Gu said.

With these combined measures, the local courts were able to shorten the average time it takes to settle such cases from 34 days to 27 days, effectively improving the court's efficiency, Gu said.

"This year, the local courts will put more effort into cooperating with residents and social workers in communities and neighborhoods where the defendants live to exert more societal pressure on them to obey," Gu said.

Gu said the advantage of mobilizing community resources is that social workers and community staff members know more about the defendants, so that they can inform the court staff about where the defendants are.

The courts will also put up notices in the communities and neighborhoods where these defendants live so as to put more social pressure on them, forcing them to carry out court orders.

The courts also plan to broaden their cooperation with government agencies such as the Shanghai General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection to prevent defendants from fleeing abroad.