Beijing Internet Court forms a court matrix to improve efficiency
The Beijing Internet Court has developed a matrix to shake off the limitations of time and location on the court's trials and other daily work to enhance its efficiency.
The matrix includes traditional physical court, online court based on physical court environments, online platforms both for judges' daily work and trials, virtual courts and virtual technology-based physical cabins that been established at the end of April.
It was established gradually to meet the increased needs on the court in dealing with various disputes on online products and services arising from the daily life and economic changes under the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Feb 3 to the end of April, the court has filed nearly 10,000 cases and the number of cases received is basically the same as last year, which indicates that the public has fully adapted to the online filing mode of the court. The platform runs smoothly, and is basically not affected by the pandemic.
Faced with the load of cases, judicial workers who have had to work from home for the COVID-19 prevention and control measures have effectively expanded the court’s existing hearing space, which is based on the court's local area network and the internet, relieving the court of time and space limitations.
On Feb 18, the court used its newly developed internet-based trial system for judges to hear a copyright infringement over the internet, which was the first hearing in which the judge worked from home.
Later, an internet platform for judges' daily work was released. Judges can register the same way as they do in physical court as it connects the court’s local area network and internet in a way that guarantees the security of all data exchange.
To ensure a court session to proceed in a serious manner with the appearance of a physical court environment, the court developed a virtual court. It utilizes a technology based on semantic segmentation model in deep learning.
No matter the background behind a judge, the technology can replace it with a court scene with national emblems, an electric judicial mallet, and the names of those present, and can accurately do human body image segmentation.
During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the court has heard over 30 cases through the virtual court.
The court has further enriched its network with building cabins based on the virtual court technology. Each of the cabins occupies around 3 square meters and includes one seat for the judge and one computer. They could meet the needs of small-scale litigation trials, simplified trials, evidence exchange, mediation and so on, which makes the work convenient, low-carbon and environmentally friendly.
The whole internet court matrix, which fosters a conservation-minded society and the concept of "green government", will become a new model for building a novel smart court system.