It used to take a couple of days for plaintiffs and defendants to receive official court documents signed and stamped by judges, but now the process takes only 45 minutes thanks to a new electronic seal system.
Court decisions by local courts of a district people's court should be approved by the district people's court. In the past, the local courts could not afford to send every decision to the district people's court, which is far away, for approval, thus delaying the production of the written judgment.
The using of the electronic seal system solves the problem. The judge of a local court send a document through the computer to the district people's court.
After checking the fingerprint identification of the judge of a local court, the computerized system of the district people's court will automatically print an official seal of the district people's court and send the valid written judgment back to the local judge within an hour.
The new method greatly cuts the processing time that previously involved in person delivery.
Yin Bing, a local court official, said the "electronic seal" is a good example of technical application in the legal system and will significantly improve the court service.
Starting January 1, the new method will be used in more than 50 local courts scattered throughout Beijing.
It used to take a couple of days for plaintiffs and defendants to receive official court documents signed and stamped by judges, but now the process takes only 45 minutes thanks to a new electronic seal system.
(People's Daily December 3, 2001)
