Only Half of the Judges in China Are Actually Handling Cases?

There are more than 50 judges in our court, but only around 30 of them actually handle cases. The proportion of judges who handle cases is less than 60%,” said Tang Fei, a Judge of a county court in a midland province of China. In the court which Tang Fei works in, the president, vice president, and some directors of administrative offices do not handle cases, even though they all have judicial qualifications.

The journalist found that, only 50% judges in grass-roots courts in middle China handle cases, while the proportion is 80% in grass-roots courts in east China. In one of the grass-roots court of Guangdong province, the directors of the Political-work Section and Research Office are judges, while the team leader and the vice team leader of the Bailiff Team are also judges.

Tang Fei described his daily life as follows: From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., trials of 5 cases; from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., trials of another 2 cases, followed by the drafting of reports on judgments; from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., drafting of reports continued and materials of court hearings of the following day prepared. Tang Fei also stated that, during the busiest time, he has no time even to drink water.

In the past 2 years, on average each judge in the criminal tribunal to which Tang Fei belongs handled 90 cases per year. What is more, a detached tribunal needs to handle...