BUSINESS DISPUTE RESOLUTION

‘CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE 2004’

CONTENT

 Introduction of Civil Procedure Code 2004

 Basic Principles of the Code
 The Court’s Jurisdiction
 Civil-procedure conducting agencies & persons
 Civil case involved parties
 Procedural Time Limit
 Procedures for settling cases at First-instance Courts
 Trial preparation
 Conciliation
CONTENT

 First-instance Court Sessions

 Procedures for resolution at Appeal Courts
 Cassation Procedures
 Reopening Procedures
INTRODUCTION

 Scope and functions of Civil Procedure Code

 Purpose of Civil Procedure Code

 Effect of Civil Procedure Code:

All VN Involving Diplomatic

territory Consular foreign privileges:
of VN offices in element(s) diplomatic
foreign in VN channels
countries
‘CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE 2004’
BASIC PRINCIPLES

 Right to request Courts to protect legitimate rights and

interests

 Involved parties’ right to decision-making and self-

determination

 Equality in rights and obligations in civil procedures

 Ensuring the involved parties’ right to defense

BASIC PRINCIPLES

 Supervision of trials

 Supervising the law observance in civil procedures

 The role of ‘The People’s Procuracy’

 Assurance of the effect of Courts’ judgments / decisions

BASIC PRINCIPLES

 Conciliation in civil procedures

 Ensuring impartiality of persons conducting / participating

in civil procedures

 Following the two-level adjudication regime:

First-
instance Appellate
judgments/ judgments/
decisions decisions
‘CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE 2004’
CIVIL DISPUTES FALLING UNDER THE
COURTS’ JURISDICTION
BUSINESS, TRADE DISPUTES FALLING
UNDER COURTS’ JURISDICTION

Reorganization
 JURISDICTION OF COURTS OF
DIFFERENT LEVELS

 People’s Courts of Rural Districts, Urban Districts,

Provincial Capitals, Provincial towns (called District-level
people’s courts)

 Art.25 & 27 of the Code: Civil disputes (Marriage & Family)

 Art.29 (1a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i): Business & Trade disputes
 Art.31(1): Labor disputes

 Art.33(3): Not involving of parties/properties in

foreign countries
 JURISDICTION OF COURTS OF
DIFFERENT LEVELS

 People’s Courts of Provinces or Centrally-run Cities

(called provincial-level people’s court)
 Art.25,27,29,31 of this Code
 Incl. Disputes and Requests prescribed in Art.33(3) of the Code

 The provincial-level people’s courts shall have the jurisdiction

to resolve according to first-instance procedures civil
cases/matters falling under the jurisdiction of the district-
level people’s courts, which are taken up by provincial-level
people’s courts for settlement
 JURISDICTION OF COURTS OF
DIFFERENT LEVELS

 Territorial jurisdiction of courts (Art.35)

 Jurisdiction of courts selected by plaintiffs (Art.36)

 Transferring civil cases/matters to other courts (Art.37)

 Merging or Separating cases (Art.38)

CIVIL PROCEDURE-CONDUCTING AGENCIES &
CIVIL PROCEDURE-CONDUCTING PERSONS

 Civil procedure-conducting agencies incl.:

 The people’s courts; and
 The people’s procuracies
[Art.39 (1)]

 Civil procedure-conducting persons incl.:

 Chief judges, judges, people’s jurors & court clerks; and
 Chairmen of procuracies, procurators
[Art.39 (2)]

 Tasks and powers of judges, people’s jurors, court clerks,

procuracy chairmen, procurators
(Art. 41, 42, 43, 44, & 45)
CIVIL PROCEDURE-CONDUCTING AGENCIES &
CIVIL PROCEDURE-CONDUCTING PERSONS

 Cases where civil procedure-conducting persons must

refuse to conduct or be replaced:

 They are concurrently the involved parties, the

representatives/relatives of the involved parties

 They’ve participated in the capacity as defense counsels of the

legitimate rights & interests of involved parties/witnesses/interpreters
in the same cases

 There are clear grounds to believe they may not be impartial in

performing their tasks
 COMPOSITION OF PANELS FOR
RESOLUTION OF CIVIL CASES/MATTERS

 Composition of the panel for first-instance trial:

 One (01) judge; and
 Two (02) people’s jurors

In special cases, first-instance trial can be conducted with one (01) judge &
three (03) people’s jurors

 Composition of the panel for appellate trial:

 Three (03) judges
 COMPOSITION OF PANELS FOR
RESOLUTION OF CIVIL CASES/MATTERS

 Composition of the panel for cassation/reopening trial

 The cassation/reopening trial panels of the provincial-level people’s

courts shall be the Judges’ Committee of the provincial-level people’s
court

 The cassation/reopening trial panels of the Supreme People’s Court

shall be the Judges’ Council of the Supreme People’s Court

 Combined of three (03) judges

 Must be at least two thirds (2/3) of the total number of its members
must participate
 ARRANGEMENTS FOR RESOLUTION OF
CIVIL MATTERS

 Settled by a board of three (03) judges: Art.26 (5),

Art.28 (6), Art.30 (2&3), Art.32 of this Code &
appeals/protests against matter-settling decisions

 Settled by one (01) judge: civil, marriage, and family,

business, trade, or labor that do not fall within the above

 Business/trade matters requested for commercial

arbitration shall comply with law provisions on
commercial arbitration
 INVOLVED PARTIES IN CIVIL CASES

 Involved parties in civil cases:

 Plaintiff: person who requests the court to resolve the civil case
when he/she/it holds the legitimate rights & interests of his/her/it
being infringed upon

 Defendant: is the person against whom the plaintiff initiates a lawsuit;

and

 Other related person(s)

 INVOLVED PARTIES IN CIVIL CASES

 Defense counsels of involved parties

 Witnesses

 Expert-witnesses

 Interpreters

 Representatives
 INVOLVED PARTIES IN CIVIL CASES

 The involved parties’ civil procedure law capacity and civil

procedure act capacity (Art.57)

 Rights & Obligations of involved parties

 Plaintiff(s): Art.59
 Defendant(s): Art.60
 Other related person(s): Art.61
 PROVISIONAL EMERGENCY MEASURES

 Art.102: In Business/Trade dispute matters…

 Prohibiting the transfer of property right over the disputed properties

 Prohibiting the change if the current conditions of disputed properties

 Freezing accounts at banks/credit institutions

 Prohibiting involved parties from performing / or forcing them to

perform certain acts

 …
 PROCEDURAL TIME LIMITS
 Art.159: the statute of limitations for lawsuits is the time
limit during which subjects have the right to initiate
lawsuits to requests the court to settle civil cases in
order to protect their legitimate rights & interests, which
have been infringed upon

 If this time limit expires, they will lose their right to

initiate lawsuits unless otherwise provided by law

 The statute of limitations for initiating a lawsuit to

request the court to settle a civil case is two (02) years
as from the date of legitimate rights & interests of
subjects are infringed upon.
 PROCEDURE FOR SETTLING CASES AT
FIRST-INSTANCE COURTS
Submitting lawsuit
Plaintiff application form & Court
Evidence
5 working days

Accept to Return
Transfer
proceed (not accepting)

3 working days
Request for supplementation
Lodging & Settling complaints

3 working days
Notify the
acceptance
Uphold the Receive back
return the lawsuit to
proceed
 NOTICE ON ACCEPTANCE OF CASE

 Within three (03) working days as from the date of

receiving the case, the Court must send written notices to
defendants, individuals, agencies, and organizations with rights
& obligations to the settlement of the case, to the
procuracies of the same level on their acceptance of the
case

 Within fifteen (15) days as from the date of receiving the

notices, the notified persons must submit to court their
written opinions on the claim & supported evidences

 Extension? Yes – but must not exceed fifteen (15) days

 COUNTER-CLAIMS

 The defendants are entitled to file counter-claim against

the plaintiffs

 Counter-claims are made to clear liability against the

plaintiffs’ claims

 The counter-claims may exclude the partial/full

acceptance of the plaintiffs’ claims

 Interrelation between plaintiffs’ claims and counter-claims?

 TRIAL PREPARATION

 Time limit for trial preparation (Art.179):

 Cases prescribed in Art.25 and 27 of this Code shall have the limit of
four (04) months counting from the date of case acceptance
 Can be extended but not more than two (02) months

 Cases prescribed in Art.29 and 31 shall have the limit of two (02)
months counting from the date of case acceptance
 Can be extended but not more than one (01) month

 After the trial preparation: Stop the

resolution

Recognize the Suspend the Bring the case

agreement resolution to trial
 CONCILIATION

 During the period of preparation for the first-instance trial of the

case, the Court must carry out conciliations for the involved
parties to reach agreement on the resolution of the case

 Civil cases which must not be conciliated:

 Claims for compensation for damages caused to State assets
 Civil cases arising from transactions which are contrary to law or social
ethics

 Civil cases which cannot be conciliated:

 Defendants are intentionally absent though having been duly summoned
twice (02) by the Court
 The involved parties cannot take part of conciliation for plausible reasons
 FIRST-INSTANCE COURT SESSIONS

 [Art.196] General requirements for first-instance court

sessions

 [Art.197] Direct, oral, and continuous hearing

 Presence of Plaintiffs, Defendants, Witnesses, etc.

 …

 Procedures of commencing a court session

 (Art.213 to Art.241)
 PROCEDURES FOR RESOLUTION OF
CASES AT APPEAL COURTS

 Art.242: Appellate trial means the re-trial by immediate

superior court of a case with the first-instance court’s
judgment/decision…being appealed or protested
against

 Art.245: Time limit for an appeal

 First-instance court’s judgment: fifteen(15) days

 First-instance court’s decision on suspending or stopping the

resolution: seven (07) days
 PREPARATION FOR AN APPELLATE TRIAL

 [Art.257] The Chief Judge of the appeal court:

 Setting up Appellate Trial Panel
 Assigning a (01) Judge to act as the presiding judge

 Time limit for appellate trial preparation:

Suspend the appellate trial

Two (02)
Stop the appellate trial
months

…can be extended but must

not more than one (01) month Bring the case to appellate trial
 PROCEDURES FOR REVIEWING LEGALLY
EFFECTIVE JUDGMENTS & DECISIONS

 CASSATION PROCEDURES

 [Art.282] …means the review of Courts’ legally effective

judgments/decisions, which are protested as serious law
violations in the settlement of cases are detected

 How this can be detected?

GROUNDS FOR PROTEST ACCORDING TO
CASSATION PROCEDURES

 Conclusions in judgments/decisions are incompatible with

the objective details of the cases

 Serious violations are committed in legal proceedings

 Serious errors are made in the application of laws

 CASSATION PROCEDURES

 Discovering legally effective judgments/decisions which

need to be reviewed according to cassation procedures:
 [Art.284] The involved parties, individuals, agencies…are entitled to
discover law violations in legally effective judgments/decisions of
courts to notify in writing to persons entitled to protest as defined in
Art.285 of this Code

 [Art.285] Persons who are entitled to protest:

 Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court All Levels
 Chairman of the Supreme People’s Procurary
 Chief Judge of the provincial-level People’s Court District-level
 Chairmen of the provincial-level People’s Procuracy People’s
Courts
 TIME LIMIT TO PROTEST…

 [Art.288] Persons who are entitled to protest according

to cassation procedures may only make their protests
within three (03) years as from the date the court
judgments/decisions take legal effect

 [Art.291] Jurisdiction to review cases according to

cassation procedures…
 CASSATION PROCEDURES

 Time limit for opening of cassation review court sessions

 Four (04) months (Art.293)

 Scope of the cassation review (Art.296)

 The Cassation Review Panels shall only review parts of legally

effective judgments/decisions being protested against or related to
the review of the protested contents

 The Cassation Review Panels shall be entitled to review parts of the

legally effective judgments/decisions which are neither protested against
nor related to the review of the protested contents, if these parts
infringe upon the interests of State, or third parties other than the
involved parties in the cases
 CASSATION PROCEDURES

 [Art.297] Jurisdiction of the Cassation Review Panel:

 To reject the protest and uphold the legally effective

judgments/decisions

 To uphold the lawful judgments/decisions of the subordinate courts,

which have been annulled or amended

 To annul legally effective judgments/decisions for re-trials according

to the first-instance or appellate procedures

 To annul judgments/decisions of the courts which have tried the

cases and stop the resolution thereof
 REOPENING PROCEDURES

 [Art.304] Nature of reopening procedures

 …means the review of legally effective judgments/decisions

which are protested against due to the appearance of newly
detected details which may substantially change the
contents of the judgments/decisions and which were not
known to the Courts and the involved parties when the
Courts rendered such judgments/decisions
 REOPENING PROCEDURES

 Grounds for protest according to reopening procedures

(Art.305):

 Important details of the case were newly discovered which

the involved parties could not have known in the course of
resolving case

 There are grounds to prove that the conclusions of the

expert witnesses and translation of intepreters were
untruthful or evidences were falsified
 REOPENING PROCEDURES

 Grounds for protest according to reopening procedures

(Art.305) (cont.):

 Judges, people’s jurors or procurators intentionally diverted

the case files or delibrately made unlawful conclusions

 The criminal, administrative, civil, marriage and family, business,

commercial or labor decisions of courts or decisions of
State agencies on which the courts based themselves to
resolve the cases had already been annulled
 REOPENING PROCEDURES
 Time limit for prostest…(Art.308)
 One (01) year

 Jurisdiction of the Reopening Procedure Panels (Art.309):

 To reject protests and uphold legally effective

judgments/decisions

 To annul legally effective judgments/decisions for first-

instance retrial

 To annul legally effective judgments/decisions and stop the

resolution of the case
BUSINESS DISPUTE RESOLUTION

‘CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE 2004’