The Bureau of Justice of Shenzhen Municipality, Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court and Shenzhen Lawyers Association jointly entered into the “Cooperation Agreement on the Participation of Lawyers in Lawsuit Mediation” Nov. 7.
The agreement aims to put into full play the professionalism of lawyers on preventing and settling conflicts. By setting up a standardized, international, professional, informative and long-term lawyer mediation working mechanism, it aims to improve multiple working mechanisms such as independent third party assessment, undisputed fact record, undisputed mediation solution recognition and joint mediation of cases involving Hong Kong parties.
The number of the first batch of lawyer appointed by Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court as mediators to participate in pre-lawsuit mediation reaches 88. They are from 15 law firms across Shenzhen, including 22 lawyers from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or with foreign nationalities.
According to the features of each case, Qianhai court sets up a list of lawyers based on their expertise such as civil cases, commercial cases, intellectual property cases, and commercial cases involving foreign parties.
Besides, the Regulation on Implementing the Mediation Work of Lawyers has a specific stipulation on cases that involve foreign, Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan parties. If the parties agree on applying laws of Hong Kong, the court would give priority to the appointment of a Hong Kong lawyer to work as the mediator. (Chen Xiaochun)
