Electronic proof now permissible in civil lawsuits in China

HONG KONG - Electronic data may be now be used as evidence in civil lawsuits on the Chinese mainland. The ruling comes as part of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law issued on February 4.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council says the ruling extends to information generated and stored in a number of forms of electronic media, including electronic data interchange, online chat records, blogs, microblogs, texts, electronic signature and domain names.

The new regulations also apply to audio and video materials stored in the form of electronic media.   www.hktdc.research.com/ (ATI).