The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") has recently issued the Decision on Revising the Arrangement Concerning Entrusting Each Other with Serving Judicial Documents and Obtaining Evidence in Civil and Commercial Cases by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Macao Special Administrative Region (the "Decision"), with effect from March 1, 2020.

According to the Decision, the revised Arrangement Concerning Entrusting Each Other with Serving Judicial Documents and Obtaining Evidence in Civil and Commercial Cases by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Macao Special Administrative Region (the "Arrangement") stipulates that where the courts of the Mainland and of the Macao Special Administrative Region entrust each other with serving judicial documents and obtaining evidence, the relevant documents and information should be transmitted and forwarded electronically through the Mainland-Macao judicial assistance network platform. This platform has been basically completed so far and will be officially put into operation upon the effectiveness of the revised text of the Arrangement. Once launched, the platform will enable the courts of the Mainland and of the Macao Special Administrative Region to transmit and forward, examine, process and follow up online the relevant documents and information throughout the process in cases requiring the service of such documents and the collection of evidence. Also, the Arrangement notes that the SPC may authorize the entrustment of service of judicial documents and obtainment of evidence between some intermediate people's courts and grassroots-level people's courts and the Court of Final Appeal of Macao, cutting a previous step of examination and forwarding by high courts. In addition, the Arrangement incorporates new provisions in respect of witness testimony given through video and audio records.

(Source: Supreme People’s Court)