Recently, Haikou Maritime Court has imposed fines totaling one million yuan on two litigants who have falsified evidence to obstruct the course of justice in a case involving disputes over marine development and utilization. The court has further referred to the public security authorities the criminal clues the court has found during the trial of the case, such as those to the suspected act of forging a corporate seal.

The case involved disputes arising out of a contract for a land reclamation project. During the trial, judges of Haikou Maritime Court found that the plaintiff, an industrial company, and the defendant, a construction group, were suspected of falsifying evidence in collaboration. At the previous court hearing, the two litigants had respectively signed and read out a Guarantee of Litigation in Good Faith. The court initiated the judicial authentication procedure in order to verify the suspicion. When the two litigants were confronted with conclusive evidence of their forging of evidence, they refused to admit their mistake and instead made all kinds of excuses in an attempt to avoid legal consequences. Such act impaired justice, deviated from the fundamental principle of litigation in good faith, severely impeded the trial and caused a waste of judicial resources. Accordingly, Haikou Maritime Court duly imposed fines on the litigants.

Following the issuance of an overall plan for the free trade port, there have been higher and more urgent demands for the creation of a law-governing, international and convenient business environment. To achieve this goal, Haikou Maritime Court persistently improves judicial transparency and implements measures to facilitate litigation for the public, and provides judicial services that are of higher quality and efficiency; in addition, strictly complying with the Implementation Plan of Hainan Courts for Special Actions to Address “Trap Loans” and Fraudulent Litigation, the court implements the mechanism of good-faith guarantees, strengthens the verification of facts and evidence, duly deals with dishonest and illegal acts in litigation, and spares no effort to maintain judicial authority and credibility. These measures all contribute to the “predictability” of the business environment of the Free Trade Port.