Are you looking into lawsuits against a Chinese company or person? Maybe you are located in Canada, New Zealand, or Australia. If you decide you want to file a lawsuit in China’s courts, you are going to need a good lawyer located in China. You cannot use a lawyer in New Zealand or England.
Every year, many companies do business with companies or people located in China. As is the case with any business relationships, things can fall apart. People break contracts and damages happen. Many people try to avoid the courts in China by signing arbitration agreements. Or in the minimum, they have a clause in the business contract that says that the parties would agree to arbitration in Singapore if there are issues. But will Chinese courts enforce foreign court orders or arbitration orders?
If you need to file a lawsuit or defend a lawsuit, contact us. We can also help with international arbitration. We have lawyers and legal experts in China and Canada for any benefit or skill level. We have paralegals that are $175/hour, all the way up to senior lawyers with 35 years of experience that are $800/hour.
We also have experts in divorce and lawsuits. You can fill out the form on the side of this page or call us at 1-844-466-6529.
Find a lawsuit lawyer in:
- Beijing
- Shanghai
- Tianjin
Lawsuits Against A Chinese Company And Why It Matters
Understanding the civil litigation system in China is important if you want to do business in China, and not get into trouble. Lawsuits against a Chinese Company is part of doing business in China. China’s legal system was first created by the Soviet Union. China uses civil law, not common law (British.) In China, there is only one trial, and one possibility for an appeal. After you go through two levels of trial, the legal matter is finished. National disputes are dealt with at the Supreme Court level. Provincial issues are dealt with at the “High Court” level. And the “basic courts” and intermediate courts deal with city issues. The Supreme People’s court only deals with legal disputes $40 million dollars and up.
Photo: Supreme Peoples Court Monitor
Filing Lawsuits In China
There are also a lot of lawsuits right now because times are tough. With COVID-19 and trade wars, people have more time to focus on lawsuits. If business was going very well, they would likely want to focus on growing their business. Lawsuits can be very profitable for businesses, but they are stressful and take up time. A Chinese court will often not enforce court orders outside the country. Therefore, if the person or company you are suing has their assets (property and cash) in China, don’t waste your time filing the lawsuit in Australia. If you get the court order in Australia, it will be worthless in China. You will need to hire a lawyer, ideally, one of ours, to do research into where the companies assets are, and where they are registered. Don’t assume a company is registered in China. Your lawyer needs to do a lot of research before filing the lawsuit. This is true for company lawsuits, divorce, or personal injury cases. China signed the Hague Convention. Therefore, you can try and bring foreign judgments, but it’s very hard to do.
Read more articles about living in China:
- Access To Justice Issues
- Doing Business In China
- Should Divorce Be Easier In China?
- Raising Money In China
- What Is A Separation Agreement?
Where Should The Lawsuit Be Filed?
When you want to figure out where to sue someone, you should first look at the contract you signed. You will look for a clause that says where a dispute would be heard. It might say, “any disputes would be heard in the courts of Beijing.” This is called a Forum Selection Clause. If the contract says you will use arbitration in Australia, that’s what you should do. There might be ways around the forum selection clause. However, if someone files a lawsuit in the wrong place, you can file a jurisdictional response. As you can see, the legal terms are not very user friendly. They have complicated names, and even more complicated forms. If the contract doesn’t say that the dispute would be dealt with by arbitration, but you want it to be, the other side will need to agree.Lawsuits Against A Chinese Company
You will need to prepare a strong case. The judges might have an easier time understanding the Chinese company. This is why it’s so important that you get legal advice from a lawyer in China. We know a lot of ways to save you money and time with lawsuits. The Chinese courts will often have no problem accepting international issues to be heard in their courts. China wants to have power over decisions made globally. In short, it’s much better to file a lawsuit directly in China, than trying to enforce a foreign order. It will save you time and money.Lawsuits In The Chinese Courts Procedures
- Making sure that you file in the correct court
- The filing of the lawsuit (get the court to stamp the documents)
- Exchanging documents and filing all the paperwork
- The trial
- Appeals
Lawsuits Against A China Company
Here is how the legal system works in China. The National Peoples Congress is the highest body of law in China. Under them is the judicial system and the legislation system. The state council serves as a bridge to the local governments. The highest court system is called the Supreme Court. Underneath them is the High Courts. The lowest level is called the basic courts.
It seems that lawsuits between Chinese and American companies are becoming more common. Fineprint, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, just filed a lawsuit against Apple. We don’t have lawyers in the United States, but we do have lawyers in Canada. If you are a Chinese company that wants to file a lawsuit in Canada, we can help you. We have lawyers and paralegals in Vancouver and Toronto.
The Apple and Fineprint lawsuit is massive. It’s for $1.4 billion in damages. The AI company has demanded that Apple stop using Siri, as they claim it’s their own intellectual property. It shows that the tech companies in China and the USA will continue to sue each other.
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