All China Lawyers Association, Lawyers' Handling of Civil Litigation Cases Guidelines

Published: December 6 2001
Applicability: Lawyers participating in civil or economic litigation in the PRC shall comply with these Guidelines (Article 2).

Main contents: The Guidelines have 209 articles, setting out the rules of legal representation in civil litigation cases. These rules include rules for accepting and concluding cases (Part Two) and rules for investigation and evidence gathering (Part Three). Most of the rules deal with legal representation in connection with specific judicial procedures, including procedures at first instance (Part Four), procedures at second instance (Part Six), summary procedure (Part Five), special procedures (Part Seven), retrial procedures (Part Eight), procedures for public notice of claims (Part Nine), procedures for bankruptcy of and debt repayment by enterprise legal persons (Part Ten) and enforcement procedures (Part Eleven). In general, these rules specify what actions a lawyer shall take and when and how such action shall be taken for a client in each of these procedures.
Related legislation: PRC Civil Procedure Law (2nd Revision) and PRC, Lawyers Law (Amended), Oct 28 2007, CLP 2007 No.10 p83