Wheels of justice continue to turn in tent-courthouses
The quake might have flattened many courthouses in Sichuan , but justice must be served - even if it means holding hearings in a tent.
At the An County People's Intermediate Court, two tents have been set up outside the original court building, complete with stands for plaintiffs and defendants, and a court emblem hanging over the judge's bench.
An official working in the court's temporary office, in what was once its car park, said 32 civil and four criminal cases had been heard since the county reopened on May 19.
No court workers were seriously hurt in the quake. Soon after court officials finished helping with rescue work, they began accepting inquiries from the public and contacting people regarding cases due to be heard.
Cases were heard in the usual manner, but judges noticed a change in people's attitudes. 'People seemed to become more conciliatory,' said Judge Qiu, a civil court judge since 1996.
For example, a wife with three children who had been determined to seek a divorce since 2006 agreed to give the relationship one more try.
'When they came to court, they were much calmer than they had been previously,' Judge Qiu said.
'I told them that domestic conflict is much less serious than the loss of a life, and they agreed not to divorce right on the spot.'
Another case involved a plaintiff suing a builder for using substandard materials in a pig sty that had collapsed. The defendant denied liability, saying it was the plaintiff who chose the cheap material.
The plaintiff was furious and even sought media coverage at the first hearing. But after the quake the man, who had worked for days with a rescue team, softened his stance.
'Compared with all those lives that have perished, what is that little sum of money to me?' Judge Qiu recalled the plaintiff saying. He finally accepted a settlement for half the amount he had originally sought.
Since the reopening, judges have been trying to resolve cases from before the quake. Most cases since the quake are still in the hands of the police or prosecutors, but other courts in Sichuan are handling cases like petty thefts and misappropriation of relief materials.
On June 2, the Sichuan Higher People's Court issued a notice asking all the province's courts to give top priority to quake-related cases and set up special teams to handle them.
The High Court asked that all difficult and sensitive cases be reported to it, so that judgments could be standardised.
Judge Qiu said An county judges had been meeting to discuss the new types of cases that people had been inquiring about since the quake.
One was a property case in which a developer had not transferred ownership to purchasers before the quake. Buyers are now seeking refunds for collapsed flats, claiming substandard construction.
Another involved tenants of collapsed properties who are seeking refunds on their leases.
