If you bring a lawsuit before a Chinese court, you need to pay court costs at the time of filing.
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The court costs depend on your claim. The rate is set on the scale of rates and denominated in RMB.
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.
Specifically, for property disputes, Chinese courts charge court costs based on the amount/value in dispute.
In China, court courts are calculated with a progressive system in the RMB Yuan. Its schedule is as follow:
（1） From 0 Yuan to 10,000 Yuan, 50 Yuan;
（2） 2.5% for the part between 10,000 Yuan and 100,000 Yuan;
（3） 2% for the part between 100,000 Yuan and 200,000 Yuan;
（4） 1.5% for the part between 200,000 Yuan and 500,000 Yuan;
（5） 1% for the part between 500,000 Yuan and 1 million Yuan;
（6） 0.9% for the part between 1 million Yuan and 2 million Yuan;
（7） 0.8% for the part between RMB 2 million and RMB 5 million;
（8） 0.7% for the part between 5 million Yuan and 10 million Yuan;
（9） 0.6% for the portion between 10 million Yuan and 20 million Yuan;
（10） The part of 20 million Yuan, 0.5%.
If you win as a plaintiff, the court costs will be borne by the losing party; and the court will refund the court cost you paid previously after receiving the same from the losing party.
The total 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.
For more information about the cost of litigation in China, please read our post “Sue a Company in China: How Much Does It Cost?“.
For more information about how to sue a Company in China, please read our post “Is It Hard to Sue a Chinese Company?“.
The Cross-border Trade Dispute 101 Series (‘CTD 101 Series’) provides an introduction to China-related cross-border trade dispute, and covers the knowledge essential to cross-border trade dispute resolution and debt collection.
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Contributors: Meng Yu 余萌
