October 24, 2006

I noticed an article this morning --in an Indian paper actually-- remarking on how courts in the Chinese city of Nanjing will use SMS services to deliver information to people in the area:
The court can provide basic information on lodging a lawsuit, court notices and even case-specific information to those who request it, officials with the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing, Capital of eastern Jiangsu Province said.

This is the first for China, Xinhua news agency reported.

In China, access to trial information has traditionally been difficult and only a small fraction of the general public had any litigation know-how.

In Nanjing, people can send a text-message request to the court's information centre, but access to specific case information is restricted to those involved in the case.

The court gives both parties to a litigation an 11-figure code number, which they use to make their text-message request, the report said.
--more at CNET Asia--