China's top court asked disciplinary departments at the grassroots level to play their supervisory role to stop judicial officers from accepting fees for acting as go-betweens in lawsuits.

The disciplinary departments must strictly inspect legal officers, forbidding them from getting money by acting as intermediaries between courts and litigants, under a guideline issued by the Supreme People's Court recently.

Some judicial officers have used lawsuits as a business, asking for payment of commissions after helping litigants establish relations with judges, the top court said.