CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Qingyou Wang, Yichen Lu, Chao Tang and Yuhe Gu, Anli Partners
return the case to the court of first instance for retrial at his discretion; or • the appeal court may himself investigate all the relevant facts, figure out all the questions of law and make a judgment overruling the first-instance judgment. Therefore, there is no granting with conditions in Chi- nese lawsuits. 10.6 Powers of the Appellate Court After an Appeal Hearing The appellate court may: • maintain the judgment of first instance; • return the case to the first-instance court; and • make a new judgment changing the judgment of the first instance. 11. Costs 11.1 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of
ally paid by them and to establish direct links between these fees and expenses and certain matters neces- sary to resolving the dispute. 11.2 Factors Considered When Awarding Costs When awarding costs, the court will consider: • the result of judgment when awarding the court fees, usually the court fee allocation is in propor- tionate with the liabilities of the parties; or • whether the parties have an agreement on the attorney fees and expenses, and whether the attorney fees and expenses are reasonable and necessary. 11.3 Interest Awarded on Costs Under the Civil Procedure Law of China, there is a debit interest for delay in performance at 0.0175% per day. Therefore, once the court awards costs in a judgment, it will, in most cases, not award interest on those costs. However, this does not mean that the obligated party can avoid interests. If the obligated party does not pay the costs by the end of the performance period des- ignated in the judgment, the debit interest for delay in performance (0.0175% per day) shall automatically commence. 12. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 12.1 Views of ADR Within the Country In China, the People’s Supreme Court highly empha- sises the importance of ADR because the case load of Chinese courts has experienced exponential growth in recent years. Take the Beijing Chaoyang District Court as an example, in 2024, the Beijing Chaoyang District Court completed the trial of approximately 160,700 cases, which means one judge completed 574.6 cases per year. In this case, the Chinese People’s Supreme Court reiterated in different situations that ADR should be utilised to resolve disputes within society.
Litigation Court Fees
The court will allocate court fees at its discretion; usu- ally, the court fee allocation is proportional to the par-
ties’ liabilities. Attorney Fees
Unless the parties have an agreement on the attorney fee, such as the losing party reimbursing the prevailing party’s attorney fee, Chinese courts will not uphold an attorney’s fee claim. Expenses (such as Accommodation, Transportation or Logistics) Same as attorney fee: unless the parties have an agreement, Chinese courts will not uphold such an expenses claim. Amount In addition to an agreement on attorney fees and expenses, the claiming party must demonstrate the reasonableness and necessity of such fees and expenses to gain the court’s support. The most com- mon way to prove is for the claiming party to show that the attorney fees and expenses have been actu-
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