China’s courts have boosted informationization development, displaying intra-court communication and a centralized management of statistics in judgment enforcement, human resources and administrative affairs, according to an appraisal released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on April 12.

They are transforming quickly into “smart courts”, says the report, which is based on the academy’s Institute of Law’s assessment of 3,512 Chinese courts’ levels of informationization; the first such assessment made.

In recent years, the Supreme People’s Court has emphasized the importance of informationization through multiple documents describing work goals and guides.

The report reveals that people’s courts nationwide have made service innovations. For instance, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court initiated the “Hawkeye Website” to closely monitor defaulters’ financial record.

The report confirms that many courts have begun evaluating their work quality and effectiveness via big data and informationization technologies.

The report says that informationization assists judges in legal research and case management done from various locations, making litigation more convenient for them and the general public.

According to the report, by November 2015, 1,740 litigation service centers had been built and 841 websites launched, enabling filing of cases, searching of documents and laws, sending and retrieving of e-documents, marking of exams, and forwarding of suggestions.

It adds that the courts’ informationization efforts, especially those adopting new media such as mobile phone applications and weibo, have brought courts and people closer together.