Courts across the country handled an unprecedented number of cases last year, 10.71 million cases and up 11 percent over the previous year, with labor disputes showing the most dramatic rise of 94 percent, the top judge said on Tuesday.

The number of cases directly handled by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) was also up by about 30 percent to 10,553, SPC President Wang Shengjun told about 3,000 National People's Congress deputies while delivering a work report.

He said the economic downturn and the adoption of the new Labor Contract Law contributed to the rise. Labor dispute cases nearly doubled last year over 2007 to 286,221, and cases related to financial and real estate disputes, company share-holding reform, transfer of stock ownership, foreign-related and maritime disputes, were up 15.24 percent to about 1.14 million, according to the report.

He said courts this year will continue to focus on cases arising from the international financial crisis and domestic and external social and economic developments.

"We will cautiously handle such cases ... and promptly propose judicial suggestions to prevent or solve these problems," he said.

Wang said courts will intensify efforts to maintain social harmony and stability through strict law enforcement, while fine-tuning mechanisms for handling people's problems.

More attention will be paid to cases involving poisonous and harmful food and medicine and dereliction of duty leading to workplace accidents, he said.

In a separate report delivered to the NPC on Tuesday, Procurator-General Cao Jianming also promised to safeguard social harmony and stability.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2009)