"China Trial" can be subscribed!
Text, Figure | Our reporter Huang Xiaoyun correspondent Cai Sizhe Wang Lin
The "stunned young man" who aspires to handle the most cases, the "Zhang pacesetter" who has been rooted in the grassroots courts for many years, and the "iron proud" who specializes in gnawing the hard bones of execution... He is a "heroic model of double hundred politics and law," and Zhang Deyi, member of the leading party group and vice president of the Yongchun County People's Court in Fujian Province.
From being admitted to the Nan'an Municipal People's Court of Fujian Province at the end of 2005 to being transferred to the Yongchun County People's Court of Fujian Province in August 2022, in the past 16 years, Zhang Deyi has changed several positions, leaving a solid footprint at every step, and has successively launched judicial brands such as "Outpatient Judge Work Law", "No Closing Court" and "Enforcement of Traffic", and has written youth without regrets with mission in the vivid practice of justice for the people.
Take root at the grassroots level and forge the original intention of the judiciary
The grassroots is the best classroom, and practice is the best teaching material. At the end of 2005, Zhang took root in the Meilin People's Court of the Nan'an City People's Court in Fujian Province, where he stayed for 12 years.
In March 2011, when Judge Zhuang Huihong arrived at the Merrill Lynch Court, she was taken aback by the office conditions, not only the hardware was rudimentary, but also the contradiction of "many people in the case is small". "At that time, there were four judges in the court, and he was the only clerk." Zhuang Huihong said that Zhang Deyi wears many hats, and he is responsible for window services, litigation fees, and court records; during working hours, he files cases, delivers them, and holds court sessions; at noon he makes legal expenses and judicial reports; and at night he sorts out and binds files, and studies and discusses cases.
What would happen to a clerk followed by 4 judges? Speaking of these green years, Zhang proudly gushed, and many details are still deeply remembered. He is like a sponge, absorbing all kinds of energy and laying a solid foundation for his career. The four judges have their own strengths, and the trial is professional, and he learns superb trial skills with them; Those who are able to mediate will learn the art of mediation; Experienced, he learned a gentle and humble style; Striving for perfection, even the binding dossier strives for perfection, so that Zhang proudly staples the dossier is exceptionally smooth and obedient.
The Merrill Lynch Court receives more than 2,000 cases a year, the largest number among the eight grassroots courts of the Nan'an Court. In the busyness, Zhang proudly grew rapidly. Since July 2011, he has been handling cases of labor disputes, construction projects, property rights protection disputes and other types of cases. Soon, the number of cases ranked first in the hospital, and repeatedly set new highs for individual cases, reaching more than 600 cases in 2015.
"After so many cases are handled, are the masses satisfied? From case filing, trial to trial, there are many procedures, can it be faster? For example, can the parties' claims be settled directly through mediation? Furthermore, if the parties want to file a case, can the judge answer questions, help communicate, and nip the contradiction in the bud? Zhang proudly began to think about whether the court could guide the masses to rational litigation like the hospital outpatient clinic.
"Doctors treat people's physical health, and judges deal with social conflicts, and there are similarities between the two." Zhang said that to go to the hospital, it is not necessary to have surgery to cure it. Now, with so many cases pouring into the courts, it is not a matter of litigation. In order to improve the quality and efficiency of case handling, he proposed the "outpatient judge work method" of "looking, smelling, asking, and cutting", and tried cases and resolved disputes in a correct way by observing words, listening attentively, investigating and questioning, and accurately diagnosing.
In January 2012, Merrill Lynch Court moved to a new location, and office conditions improved significantly. In January 2015, the "Outpatient Judge Work Law" was officially launched, and Zhang Deyi also had a personal studio. It has heard cases with zero complaints and zero petitions for six consecutive years, and has successfully mediated a number of serious and exceptionally serious traffic accident cases in the province, and solved many historical problems left over by residents in the old city, such as compensation for demolition and resettlement, inheritance disputes and so on.
In January 2015, Zhang proudly introduced the "Outpatient Judge Work Law" to resolve disputes with the right medicine
"He is a particularly positive and optimistic person, no matter how many cases there are, he does not complain, and he always smiles at the parties." Judge Lu Xiaolin said that Zhang was very kind to the crowd and always patiently listened to the parties to finish their demands. Colleagues even made his own cup and printed a smiley face pattern.
Looking back then, there was a case that impressed Zhuang Huihong deeply. The son of an old man in Hubei Province had a conflict with a co-worker in the Nan'an factory and unfortunately died. However, a certain person came to Nan'an to "ask for explanations" and found factories and many departments, but there was still no result for more than three years. However, when a lawsuit was brought to court, he felt that local protectionism was serious and was extremely uncooperative with the preparations before the trial. The factory owner also insisted that so-and-so's son was stabbed to death by a co-worker and had nothing to do with the work behavior.
After Zhang took over the case, he fully listened to the demands of both sides. He told Dan the truth of judicial openness and transparency, and the fair judgment of cases according to law, and promised that he would uphold justice and welcome supervision. At the same time, he also analyzed the interests with the factory owner, found relevant cases for his reference, and suggested that the two parties mediate to solve the problem.
The case was mediated more than a dozen times, and when he learned that a certain person had left his hometown and had a difficult life, Zhang Deyi also introduced him to a job nearby. Sincerity in exchange for understanding, but a certain is no longer stubborn, and the factory owner is also willing to cooperate and compensate more than 300,000 yuan on the spot. Witnessing Dan's emotional changes, and her gratitude to the court from being very resistant, slowly calming down to the end, Zhuang Huihong said that justice has temperature, and through the handling of cases, the parties can truly feel the warmth of the law.
Listen to the demands of the masses, find the crux of the problem, and seek a balance between reason and law. In the past 16 years, Zhang has proudly handled nearly 10,000 cases, none of which exceeded the trial limit or unjustly and wrongly, and was awarded the honorary title of "pacesetter in handling cases by the national courts" by the Supreme People's Court, and colleagues also used to call him "Zhang Biaobing".
Serving people's livelihood, the court "does not close"
"Green mountains on all sides as screens, and green water in the middle as belts." Shishan is a northern township in Nan'an, with beautiful mountains and rivers. Of the four major mountains in Nan'an, Shishan Mountain occupies two. This means that transportation is inconvenient, and the people take a long time to travel to and from the courtroom, and it may take half a day to make a trip.
In July 2017, Zhang proudly presided over the work of the Shishan Court. It is a rural court, in front of a rice field, surrounded by crops grown by the villagers. As soon as he took office, Zhang Deyi led his colleagues to upgrade the litigation service window, repair the trial court, explore judicial informatization, and transform the court environment, which is conducive to work and facilitates litigation by the parties.
The hardware goes up, but what about the software? Considering that it is not easy for parties in mountainous areas to come to court once, Zhang proudly tried to "cloud court without closing" to provide round-the-clock legal services for the masses. Talking about the original intention of the reform, Zhang Deyi said: "When I set up a studio in the Merrill Lynch Court before, I opened a personal WeChat public account, which would push some cases to readers. After arriving at the Shishan Court, I felt that I could use the social function of WeChat to change this mode of unilateral push and passive acceptance by the other party, and move the court window from offline to online in the form of two-way interaction. ”
In August 2017, the "Shishan Court WeChat Studio" successfully mediated a dispute over a sales contract with the subject of litigation of RMB235,000 on the day of its establishment. The studio provides online case filing consultation, case process inquiry, one-time notification of the conditions for case registration, materials to be submitted and litigation fees and other services. Pre-filing and review through WeChat image transmission shortens the window time for case filing. Relevant information such as the judge undertaking the case, the time of the trial, and the effective time of the judgment document can also be inquired, and a WeChat message section is opened to solve the problem of inconvenient communication between the parties and the judge at different times and at different times.
For example, Huang Jiansen, the current president of the Shishan Court, said that the parties can first send the materials through WeChat, and the court will guide the correction of the materials and make an appointment online to file the case. When the case is filed, the parties can just come and go. If the dispute can be mediated, the court will invite the local mediation organization to carry out online pre-trial mediation by phone, and carry out mediation anytime and anywhere through the creation of group chats, multi-person voice (video) and other forms.
"Contradictions often arise because of poor communication and information asymmetry. The efficiency of information communication is improved, and contradictions are resolved in a timely manner, and it will not become more intense. Zhang Deyi said that grassroots judges are at the forefront of social contradictions and disputes, and they must take the initiative to "fight fires" when encountering problems. WeChat interactive communication is a means to timely discover and control risks and effectively deal with them.
Based on the advantages of Shishan Overseas Chinese, Zhang Deyi also created the brand of "Overseas Chinese Court" to create a "new sample" of overseas Chinese-related trials. "Shishan is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in southern Fujian, with more than 400,000 overseas Chinese living abroad." Zhang Deyi said that the Shishan Court has set up "overseas Chinese-related legal service points" in areas where overseas Chinese are concentrated, answering legal questions about overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese relatives online through the Internet and WeChat, and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese relatives.
In Zhang Deyi's first year in office, the Shishan Court had a 99% case closure rate, significantly improved the sense of access to justice by the masses in the jurisdiction, and was rated as an "Excellent Court in the Province" in 2019. At present, the "Shishan Court WeChat Studio" still has a special person in charge, and has also opened the online WeChat service function. For 80% of civil procedural documents, such as mediation rulings, the Shishan Court cooperated with the local village committee and other departments to achieve accurate WeChat service and evidence exchange.
Have the courage to take responsibility to overcome execution problems
"Go!" Every time Zhang Deyi gives an order to go out to execute, he is always sonorous and powerful. In 2018, "basically solving the difficulty of enforcement" entered the stage of offensive and resolute battle, and he took the initiative to invite Ying to the executive department of the Nan'an Court, leading the business backbone to form a decisive execution team, determined to fight a beautiful battle.
In July 2018, Zhang Deyi (middle) and his colleagues carried out a recovery of stolen goods and losses at the Minshan Village Committee of Yingdu Town, Nan'an City, to protect the "money bags" of the masses
At that time, the entire Executive Board was still stuck in the long-standing and difficult dilemma of "difficult to find people, difficult to investigate, difficult to assist in implementation, and difficult to realize property". How to break? How to break? In the continuous exploration, Zhang Deyi led the executive bureau of the Nan'an Court to promote the construction of network investigation and control and smart enforcement, realizing full coverage of property investigation and control and refined property management, and completely changing the traditional execution "one car, two people, running around" model.
In June 2019, Zhang Deyi (fourth from left) organized the special implementation action of "Bright Sword and Eight Fujian"
During the special struggle against criminal syndicates and evil forces, Zhang Deyi led the enforcement cadres and police to carry out in depth the special execution of the "Bright Sword and Eight Fujian -- Operation Sharp Blade," and the rate of "black money" enforcement was far ahead of the Fujian courts. In an enforcement case involving criminal syndicates and evil forces, he led a team to various parts of Fujian to thoroughly investigate property clues and recover 85 vehicles involved in the case.
In 2019, the Quanzhou Intermediate People's Court of Fujian Province designated the Nan'an Court to be responsible for the enforcement of a series of Pan-China Company cases within its jurisdiction. Among them, the most difficult is how to dispose of the land owned by Pan-China Company. Previously, after Pan-China fell into financial difficulties, the opening pre-sale community was almost dead. With the support of the Nan'an government, new developers joined and built houses. However, Pan-China Company itself is the executor, the land in its name has been sealed by the court, and the house attached to it cannot obtain a title certificate.
"According to the previous auction model of integrated real estate, the money must be returned to the creditor after the sale. If it is not disposed of, the premises will belong to the purchaser and the interests of creditors will not be guaranteed. Faced with the conflict of interest between creditors and buyers, Zhang said that after comprehensive consideration, it was decided to bundle the real estate for auction, but the price was separated, that is, the money invested by the new developer for construction was reserved, and the land value invested by Pan-China was stripped off and distributed to creditors.
In January 2020, the transaction amount set a record for the highest single transaction in the national judicial online auction at that time: 1.134 billion yuan! The rights and interests of more than 3,000 potential home buyers are protected. Executive Judge Huang Wensheng said that more than 20 houses on the plot have been handed over one after another, with a market value of 2.3 billion yuan.
"The verdict of the case is not the end, and in the end, the verdict on paper must be turned into real money." Zhang said proudly. In the past three years, the Nan'an Court has auctioned and disposed of a total of 6.7 billion yuan of property, revitalizing a large number of non-performing assets and "zombie enterprises", and providing a strong judicial guarantee for the economic development of the jurisdiction. In the ranking of the top 100 counties (cities) in the national business environment in 2021, Nan'an jumped to 48th.
Innovative thinking and leading the way
Fairness and justice are the lifeblood of law enforcement and judicial work. Speaking of his understanding of fairness and justice, Zhang proudly sighed a lot. The first time he put on a robe and picked up the gavel, what he thought most was to judge according to law and live up to his mission. Now, after handling countless cases, he feels that the connotation of fairness and justice should be richer, not only to pursue legal effects, but also to pursue political effects and social effects, so that the people can have a greater sense of gain.
When in charge of the work of separate mediation and adjudication, Zhang Deyi set up a professional trial team according to different types of cases, forming a rapid case-handling mode of intensive trial of similar cases, and realizing the "one-stop" rapid dispute resolution effect of "source diversion and governance and litigation and mediation linkage docking". Later, Zhang Deyi explored and created a "four fast" process management mechanism with fast diversion, fast case filing, fast trial, and fast service, and used only 20 percent of the court's trial strength to complete 80 percent of the court's simple civil cases, so as to meet the people's needs for justice in a timely manner. This working mechanism was promoted on the Fujian Provincial Party Committee's "Fujian Express".
"It is not enough to achieve fairness and justice in the execution of individual cases, we must constantly explore new ways and mechanisms for enforcement work to solve the difficult problems of enforcement that the masses strongly resent." Zhang Deyi took the lead in Fujian to carry out the segmented and intensive execution model, changed the traditional practice of one person to handle the case to the end, changed from handling cases to handling matters, assembly line operations, unified execution scale, handled enforcement affairs more finely, professionally and efficiently, summarized and created a "executive through traffic" working mechanism of process dredging, service direct, information connectivity, resource financing, and momentum, which was affirmed by the instructions of the Fujian Provincial Higher People's Court and promoted throughout the province.
At the same time, Zhang Deyi formulated the "Risk Prevention and Control Mechanism for Key Links and Key Nodes of Enforcement Cases" according to the process nodes of the enforcement case, and actively invited the discipline inspection and supervision department to supervise the implementation work throughout the process and supervise key links such as the distribution of case funds. In order to ensure that the implementation work is standardized and orderly, he also invited representatives and members and media reporters to participate in and witness the implementation work throughout the process to promote the implementation of sunshine.
In order to convey judicial warmth and demonstrate humanistic care, Zhang took the initiative to win the support of the Political and Legal Committee of the Nan'an Municipal Party Committee, strengthened the linkage and cooperation with the Nan'an Municipal Finance Bureau, the Civil Affairs Bureau and other departments, insisted on using the law to help poverty alleviation and promote precise poverty alleviation, established an enforcement rescue insurance mechanism, and increased the rescue of parties in difficulty in cases involving people's livelihood "unable to execute".
"From the day I put on the robe, I am willing to be a firm dreamer of the rule of law, always maintain the feelings of the people, protect fairness and justice, and be a transmitter of the spirit of the rule of law." Zhang Deyi has always adhered to the simple pursuit of judges, and used "simple and proud" as his WeChat name to remind himself to always maintain a heart of struggle and interpret the oath with actions.
Cover and table of contents of this issue
China Trial Magazine, Issue 17, 2022
China Trial News Semi-monthly No. 303
Editor/Sun Min