Elderly people are filing a growing number of lawsuits in the city as Shanghai's population continues to age, the Shanghai Higher People's Court announced yesterday.
The Jing'an District People's Court set up the country's first and only civil court for the aged 10 years ago to offer special help. The special civil court deals with cases in which either party is over 60 years old in the district and has solved 3,204 cases since its establishment.
"Civil cases involving elderly people are growing rapidly as the population ages," said Jiang Yimin, director of the Jing'an court. "The facility will offer convenience and guidance to them because sometimes the elderly are disadvantaged in collecting evidences when engaged in a lawsuit."
People over the age of 60 account for 18.7 percent of the city's population and that number is expected to hit 33 percent in 2025, he added.
Over the past five years, the court for the aged has accepted 1,731 cases, up 16.1 percent from the previous five years.
Most of the cases involve property rights, medical treatment and divorce, the court said.