A Chinese court has started delivering trial information to mobile-phone subscribers by text message.

The court can provide basic information on lodging a lawsuit, court notices and even case-specific information to those who request it, according to a source with the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province.

This is the first for China, the source said.

In China, access to trial information has traditionally been difficult and only a small fraction of the general public have any litigation knowhow.

In Nanjing, people can send a text-message request to the court's information center but access to specific case information is restricted to those involved in the case.

The court gives both parties to a litigation an 11-figure code number, which they use to make their text-message request, the source said.

The court has also opened a telephone hotline to answer requests.

China has the largest number of phone subscribers in the world. Subscribers numbered 426 million at the end of 2005.

Source: Xinhua