Vietnam – Judicial Entrustment And Delivery Of Procedural Documents Overseas.

8 July 2021
 

On 09 June 2021, The Supreme People’s Court issued Official Letter No. 64/TANDTC-HTQT on judicial entrustment and delivery of procedural documents overseas with the following main contents:
 

1. For requesting the overseas Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (“Embassy”) to deliver procedural documents
 

When the Court requests the Embassy to deliver procedural documents to the involved parties being Vietnamese citizens in the host country, the Court must strictly and fully comply with the prescribed process.
 

In the process of coordinating with the Embassy to deliver procedural documents to the involved parties being overseas Vietnamese citizens, the Court should note:
 

• In case the Court has properly and fully followed the procedures when requesting the Embassy to deliver procedural documents and it has been more than 03 months since the Court sent the documents to the Embassy but still not received delivery results, the Court should actively contact via email or send a written document to the Embassy. At the same time, the Court sent a written request to the Supreme People’s Court for support.

• In case the Court has followed the above regulations but until the opening of Court sessions, the Court still not receives the delivery result from the Embassy, after postponing the Court sessions, the Court shall make a written request to the Embassy asking for the response of the procedural documents delivery results.

• In case the Court only transfers the delivery documents but does not forward the delivery costs to the Embassy in advance, the delivery of the procedural documents to the involved parties at the request of the Court will not be performed by the Embassy. In this case, the Court is required to re-deliver the procedural documents to the overseas involved parties without waiting for the results of the delivery of the procedural documents from the Embassy.
   

2. For the delivery of the procedural documents to the overseas involved parties by post
 

The Court may deliver procedural documents to overseas involved parties, including Vietnamese citizens, foreigners, foreign agencies and organizations, by post, provided that the law of the country where the involved parties reside agrees to this delivery method.
 

The Court delivers procedural documents to overseas involved parties by post by secured postal service with identification numbers to locate and track the delivery process.
 

In order to receive postal delivery results, the Court shall ask the postal company to guide the method to use the bill of lading code or postal code to look up online and print out the postal delivery result notice.
 

The postal delivery results are legally valid, certifying the results of delivering procedural documents to the involved parties, which is also the basis for the Court to determine that the delivery of procedural documents has been completed and that the involved parties have received the procedural documents.
 

The Court does not apply the method of delivering procedural documents by post to the involved parties whose addresses located in counties that are not in the list specified in Official Letter No. 33/TANDTC-HTQT dated 17 March 2021 issued by the Supreme People’s Court.
 

3. For the Court’s judicial entrustment to foreign competent agencies to implement the delivery and evidence collection
 

When making dossiers requesting the delivery of procedural documents, the Court may enclose in the dossier a questionnaire for the involved parties to answer and then send a written response directly to the Court, unless the Court requests Japanese competent agencies to deliver to the involved parties in this country.
 

4. For overseas judicial entrustment cost
 

• According to the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement between Vietnam and 18 countries and territories, the two parties shall perform each other’s requests for legal assistance free of charge. Along with that, according to the provisions of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters to which Vietnam is a member, the member state which is requested for delivery shall carry out a request for delivery of another member free of charge, except in some special cases.
   

• The court may not require the involved parties to pay judicial entrustment cost advance to the civil judgment enforcement Department if the Court entrusts the delivery and collection of evidence to one of the 18 countries and territories mentioned above or entrust delivery to one of the countries specified in the list issued together with this Official Letter.
   

• In case because of negligence, the Court has requested and the involved parties has paid an advance for judicial entrustment cost, the Court must send a written request to the civil judgment enforcement Department to return this money to the involved parties.