The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") recently promulgated the Judicial Interpretations on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Ascertainment of Liability for Emotional Distress Damages in the Trial of State Compensation Cases (the "Interpretations") for implementation as of April 1, 2021.

The Interpretations consist of 14 articles to mainly address five contents: claim for emotional distress damages and the acceptance thereof; the criteria for ascertainment of causing emotional distress with serious consequences; applicable rules for the forms of liability; the standards for and payment of emotional distress compensation; and other provisions. For the first time, the Interpretations make clear the objective circumstances for "causing serious consequences" and link the degrees of consequences resulted from "causing emotional distress" (namely, causing mental distress, causing serious consequences and causing particular serious consequences) and the forms of liability with corresponding payment standards for emotional distress compensation. Furthermore, the Interpretations set out several considerations for determining the amount of emotional distress compensation.

(Source: Supreme People’s Court)