Robots help with public legal services on Chinese plateau

XINING -- A robot developed for public legal services was unveiled Tuesday in the plateau province of Qinghai in Northwest China.

Equipped with cloud storage, the robot covers more than 50,000 questions and answers on subjects in a range of disputes in areas such as marriage, labor, transport, consumer rights, social security, house demolitions, tourism and private loans.

Information on law firms, notary organizations and forensic appraisal, legal aid and mediation are also available from the robot, according to Sha Chongfan with the China Democracy and Legal System Publishing House.

The publishing house and Qinghai provincial department of justice jointly developed the robot over 10 months. Legal service centers in prefectures and cities will be equipped with the robots from Tuesday.

Sha said the robots would be improved in recognition of dialects and Tibetan services, considering many minority groups, including Tibetan ethnic group living in Qinghai.

Liu Bolin, deputy chief of Qinghai provincial department of justice, said legal resources were extremely limited in the prairie area, and there were 11 counties with no lawyers at all in Qinghai.

"Development and application of high-tech products are significant in innovating and improving public legal services," he said.