Court gets B+ for the past year's legal work

The country's first-ever third-party evaluation of judicial credibility found some gaps between a Shanghai court's work and the public's feelings, though its overall performance was considered good.

Disparities mainly lay in the efficiency of enforcing a court order, answering questions after a verdict and making effective responses to petitions and complaints.

The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences on Tuesday published its report on the performance of the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court for 2015.

A total of 54 indicators in eight areas, such as justice, efficiency and capability, were assessed by the academy, which polled 2,000 people, including citizens who have audited court trials, professors of law and social sciences, attorneys and people involved in cases, said Yang Xiong, director of the social survey center under the academy.

The court earned the equivalent of a B-plus for its work.

Court data showed that enforcement is carried out 33.7 days on average after an order is pronounced.

"The duration is shorter than the six to 12 months stipulated by law, however it still lags behind the expectations of the public," read the report.

The court won high grades for transparency, efficiency in hearing cases and the professionalism and etiquette of judges.

Wang Yumei, deputy Party chief of the academy, said the evaluation broke the traditional model wherein a higher authority checks the performance of a government agency.

"It also serves as a response to President Xi Jinping's call for letting the people become the ultimate judges of the results of judicial reform," said Chen Libin, president of the Shanghai court.

"We plan to have annual 'health checkups' for our court to reflect on our work, especially the shortcomings," he said.