The Civil Justice Reform will be implemented on April 2 in Hong Kong to make the civil justice system more efficient, marking a major milestone in the development of Hong Kong's civil justice system, Chief Justice of Hong Kong Andrew Li said Tuesday.

The Chief Justice said major changes have been made to court rules and procedures, including giving the court more powers to manage case progress, streamlining and improving civil procedures, encouraging and facilitating settlement, and enabling judicial resources to be better distributed and utilized.

The reform applies to civil proceedings of the High Court and the District Court. Some of the new rules and procedures also apply to the Lands Tribunal and the Family Court with modifications.

Under the reform the court will assume greater control of proceedings from an early stage of litigation, ensuring cases are dealt with as expeditiously as practicable.

To reduce the number of unnecessary and unmeritorious interlocutory applications, the court can deal with them on paper without a hearing.

A committee has been formed to monitor the workings of the reformed civil justice system and make suggestions to the Chief Justice to ensure its effective operation.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2009)