There are five things you need to do to get ready: 1) find the legal Chinese name of the Chinese company, 2) decide whether to sue in China, 3) if yes, hire a local Chinese lawyer, 4) evaluate the costs and benefits of litigation, and 5) prepare in advance evidence that Chinese courts would like.
If you have a dispute with a Chinese company, would you choose litigation or arbitration in China? Perhaps you should first understand the advantages and disadvantages of litigation and arbitration in China.
You should prepare sufficient documentary evidence prior to filing a lawsuit, preferably provided or presented by the other party. In some cases, you can also rely on the court to collect evidence for you.
Roughly speaking, if you claim USD 10,000, the court cost is USD 200; if you claim USD 50,000, the court cost is USD 950; if you claim USD 100,000, the court cost is USD 1,600.
No. In fact, it won’t be any harder than if you were to sue any other company.
When your Chinese suppliers or distributors defraud or default, where will you file the lawsuit? China or somewhere else (eg. the place of your domicile), provided that both have jurisdiction over your case? To answer these questions, we need to compare the litigation in China with that in other countries.
You should state in your contract such loss may be incurred in advance. As such, at least you should inform the supplier of such loss in the course of execution of the contract and seek his/her consent.
Chinese courts prefer to accept written contracts with the parties’ signature.
However, with certain preparations made, contracts and orders confirmed by emails may still be accepted by Chinese courts.
You are very likely not to file a lawsuit with a court in Beijing or Shanghai, but in a city with many factories, an airport, or a seaport hundreds of kilometers or thousands of kilometers away. It means that the elite lawyers gathered in Beijing and Shanghai may not be able to help you any better.
It is very likely that you are not going to file a lawsuit with a court in Beijing or Shanghai, but in a small or medium-sized Chinese city unfamiliar to you.
As we said before, you can turn to Chinese courts for disputes with Chinese suppliers. In fact, if you need to settle disputes in China, China’s arbitration is also a good option, even better than litigation.
The costs you need to pay mainly include three items: Chinese court costs, Chinese attorney’s fees and the cost of notarization and authentication of some documents in your country.
It costs less to sue in Chinese courts. Moreover, Chinese courts are trustworthy for enforcement of commercial contracts.
You can sue a company in a Chinese court. Even if you are not in China, you can still do so with the help of Chinese lawyers. To get prepared, you need to know, to start with, whom you can sue and then identify its legal name in Chinese, as well as the address thereof.
Apart from pleadings and evidence, foreign companies in Chinese courts need to complete a series of formalities, which can sometimes be somewhat cumbersome. Therefore, it is necessary to spare sufficient time and costs to get ready.
You are entitled to claim compensation for loss and the agreed liquidated damages, and may under some circumstances receive a punitive damages award.
As long as you are ‘directly affected’ pursuant to Chinese law, you may file a lawsuit with the court. First, you must be directly affected by the defendant. Second, you must be a natural person or a legal entity.
You need to identify the address of the person or business you want to sue when preparing and filing a complaint before Chinese courts.
You need to know whom you can sue and then identify its legal name in Chinese.
The most important difference between litigation and arbitration in China is that judges and arbitrators have different ways of thinking.
