From the Readers

'Hidden rule' a blot on courts

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-20 07:45

A scandal was exposed a few days agoin which a judge in a court in Weifang, Shandong province, asked a plaintiff to pay 19,000 yuan as "fees for handling the case". Since the plaintiff had filmed the episode, the court had to return the "fees".

The Weifang scandal is not an isolated case. Courts in some places usually charge litigants 10 percent of the amount involved in the case as "contribution". This has become a "hidden rule" in the judicial system.

The law prescribes the amount of fees a court can impose in a case, and courts have no right to charge litigants extra money. As defenders of law and justice, courts should be fighting corruption. Instead, they have let the "hidden rule" tarnish their image and shatter people's confidence in the judicial system. When judges start violating the law, who will deliver justice in society?

Wu Cai Sheng Huo, via email

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(China Daily 05/20/2010 page9)