Chinese courts have exempted or reduced court costs for poor litigants in 1.08 million lawsuits by 5.3 billion yuan (US$640 million) over the past five years, the Supreme People's Court announced Friday.

The Court issued a new regulation on exempting and reducing the expense of lawsuits, aiming to simplify the application procedures for poor litigants to exempt or reduce court costs.

According to the regulation, 14 categories of poor litigants are entitled to apply for the exemption or reduction of court fees. They include litigants recovering support payments or pensions; orphans; senior citizens without children; people recovering social insurance fee or salaries; disabled people without fixed incomes; the victims of car accidents, medical accidents and industrial accidents; people injured for public interests; impoverished farmers and urban residents who receive unemployment insurance; and victims of natural disasters.

China's lawyers have provided free legal services in more than 200,000 criminal and civil cases during the past decade.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2005)