How to Hire a Lawyer to Deal with the Lawsuit in China

2020/1/8

If the plaintiff or the defendant wants to hire a lawyer, a Chinese lawyer must be hired because the foreign lawyer can't practice litigation in China according to Chinese law. In this article, we will summarize what procedures are required in the power of attorney (POA) in different situations.

For natural persons, if the POA is signed outside of China, the signature on the POA should be notarized and then attested. If the POA is signed in China but not before the judge, the signature should be notarized in China. If the plaintiff or the defendant signs the POA in person before the judge, neither notarization nor attestation is needed.

If the plaintiff is a foreign organization, such as an enterprise or a NGO, the plaintiff should provide the pleadings, the certificate of incorporation (that should be notarized and attested), the necessary evidence and the POA when and if hiring a China lawyer. Because all the documents must be signed by the representative of the organization, so the authority of the organization should make a decision to appoint one person as the representative to sign any and all the documents necessary for filing the lawsuit to the Chinese court. The decision paper should be notarized and attested. Other requirements for the documents are same as that for individual plaintiffs actions.

In order to participate in litigation in China, foreign parties need to provide more materials than Chinese citizens, and the materials need to go through more complicated procedures. Therefore, we recommend that foreign clients hire Chinese lawyers to prepare litigation materials under the guidance of professional lawyers.