Beijing courts see verdict enforcement rise

Beijing courts have seen a rapid increase in cases related to verdict enforcement in the past nine months, China's top court said on Thursday.

Courts citywide filed 158,337 such cases between January and September, up about 35 percent year-on-year, according to the Supreme People's Court.

Of the total, 522 were about the removal of illegal structures and 1,568 about rented houses, the court said.

Verdict enforcement cases are those where a dispute arises from a failure to comply with a court ruling.

"Disputes caused by blocking unauthorized business openings in residential areas is a challenge in our work because such cases, involving the displacement of individuals, can be hard to resolve," said Yang Yue, director of the court's enforcement department.

To effectively remove illegal buildings and implement rulings, the capital's courts have increased cooperation with district governments and community committees, "as enforcement will help to make the city cleaner and better organized", he said.

For example, Chaoyang District People's Court worked with the regional government to resolve a case in which 90 merchants refused to remove illegal buildings, Yang said.

The enforcement of the ruling not only protected the rights of plaintiffs, "but also helped alleviate local traffic congestion", he said.

In recent years, China has tried different ways to encourage defaulters to comply with verdicts such as the introduction of harsher penalties and restrictions.

Statistics provided by the Supreme People's Court show from 2013 to 2016, courts nationwide resolved 9.44 million verdict enforcement cases — a rise of more than 28 percent from 2010 to 2012 — and settled outstanding debts worth 3.2 trillion yuan ($464 billion), an increase of 110 percent over the same period.