Guangdong Maritime Trial Communication and Coordination Meeting 2014 was held on 6^th and 7^th November 2014 in Zhuhai.

    Attending the meeting were more than 70 front-line judges from the Forth Civil Division of Supreme People’s Court, the Forth Civil Division of Guangdong Higher People’s Court and Guangzhou Maritime Court. Mr. Luo Dongchuan, presiding judge of the Forth Civil Division of Supreme People’s Court, and Mr. Huo Min, vice president of Guangdong Higher People’s Court attended the meeting and delivered an important speech.

    Presiding judge Luo highly appreciated the achievements in maritime trail of Guangdong province made over the past three decades and encouraged the judges to keep the spirit of innovation with a view to dipping into and promoting the reform of maritime judicial system. “The mechanism of trial communication and coordination can serve as an exchange platform for and between the two levels of courts, which plays a constructive role to promote a higher efficiency in trail work, a unified judge scale, and to improve the trial work quality” said Huo, the vice president of Guangdong Higher People’s Court.

    During the meeting, the participants had reviewed the trail work of Guangzhou Maritime Court through 2013. In the year of 2013, Guangzhou Maritime Court received 2098 cases, with a subject value totaling RMB6.636 billion, among which, container-involved cases experienced a substantial growth. The average duration for the first instant trial for cases newly received has been substantially cut down. In 2014, the court has witnessed an increase of cases of disputes over damages for ship collision and frequent occurrence of cases of disputes over seafarers’ labor contracts. New changes also include a substantial decrease of cases of disputes arising from procedures and substantial increase of cases of disputes over the registration of creditor’s rights.

     Mr. Du Yixing, the vice presiding judge of the Forth Civil Division of Guangdong Higher People’s Court, reported to the meeting about the remand and amendment during the second trial of maritime cases. The meeting also discussed over issues in relation to trials of cases of disputes over damages for personal injury at sea, acceptance of electronic evidence, rules on evidence, as well as several perplexed issues in maritime trails.