Legal basis

From Articles 205 to 213 of the Civil Procedure Code 2015

Content

General principles of conciliation

During the period of preparation for the first-instance trial over cases, the Courts must carry out mediation for the involved parties to reach agreement on the resolution of the cases. The mediation must be conducted on the following principles: (i) Respect for the voluntary agreement of the involved parties, non-use of force or non-threat to use force to compel the involved parties to reach agreements against their will;and (ii) The contents of agreements between the involved parties must not contravene law and social ethics.

In some cases, however, which must not be mediated or cannot be mediated as stipulated in Articles 206 and 207 of this Code or cases settled under simplified procedures, in details:

First, Civil lawsuits which must not be mediated (Article 206):

• Claims for compensation for damage caused to State properties.
• Civil lawsuits arising from civil transactions which are contrary to law or social ethics.

Second, Civil lawsuits which cannot be mediated (Article 207) 

• The defendants or the persons with relevant interests and duties are intentionally absent though having been duly summoned twice by courts.
• The involved parties cannot take part in the mediation for plausible reasons.
• The involved parties being wives or husbands in divorce cases have lost their civil act capacity.
• One of the involved parties applied for non-mediation.

Third, cases settled under simplified procedures (Article 317). Cases settled under simplified procedures if meeting all the following conditions:

• The case has simple details, clear legal relationship and the involved parties have admitted their obligations; materials and evidences are sufficient, ensuring the sufficiency of grounds for the resolution of the case and the Court does not have to collect materials/evidences;
• Addresses of residence and headquarters of all of involved parties are determined;
• None of involved parties reside overseas and there are no properties being in dispute are in foreign countries, unless the involved parties residing overseas and the ones residing in Vietnam have reached agreements to request the Courts to resolve the cases according to simplified procedures or the involved parties have presented evidences about the legitimate right to ownership towards the properties and have reached agreements about the handling of the properties.

Notification about meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidences and mediating

• The Judges shall hold meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidences and mediating between involved parties. Before holding the meetings, the Judges shall notify the involved parties, their lawful representatives and defense counsels of their rights and interests of time, venue and contents of the meetings.
• If the mediation over the civil lawsuits cannot be conducted, the Judge shall hold the meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidence without mediation.

Participants in meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidences and mediating

Participants in the meetings shall include:

• The meeting presiding Judge;
• Court clerks in charge of writing up meeting minutes;
• Involved or lawful representatives of involved parties;
• Representatives of employee collective’s representative organizations, applicable to labor cases, at the request of employees, excluding labor cases where employee collective’s representative organizations or defense counsels of rights and interests of employees’ collectives/employees attend as representative organizations of employees’ collective. If the representatives of employee collective’s representative organizations do not attend the meeting for mediating, written opinions must be submitted;
• Defense counsels of rights and interests of involved parties (if any);
• Interpreters (if any).
• When it is deemed necessary, the Judges shall request relevant individuals, agencies and organizations to participate in the meetings; for cases pertaining to marriage and families, the Judges shall request representatives of family affair authorities, children affair authorities and/or Vietnam Women’s Union to participate in the meetings; if they are absent, the meetings shall be still conducted.

Order of meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidences and mediating

• Before conducting the meetings, Court clerks shall report the Judges about the absence and attendance of participants in the meetings;
• The Judges presiding over the meetings shall recheck the attendance and ID cards of participants
• The Judges disseminate to involved parties the provisions of laws related to the resolution of the cases so that involved parties can relate them with their rights and obligations and analyze legal consequence of the success of the mediation then voluntarily reach agreements with each other about the resolution of the cases;
• Plaintiff and defense counsels of their legitimate rights and interests make presentations of the disputes, make amendment of petitions for initiating lawsuits; grounds for protecting the petition and express opinions about matters to be mediated and resolution of the cases (if any);
• Defendants and defense counsels of their legitimate rights and interests make presentations of the claims of the plaintiffs and about counter-claims (if any); grounds for protesting against the petition of the plaintiffs; grounds for defending their counter claims and express opinions about matters to be mediated and resolution of the cases (if any);
• Persons with relevant interests and duties, defense counsels of their legitimate rights and interests express their opinions about the claims of the plaintiffs and the defendants; present their independent claims (if any); grounds for protesting against the claims of the plaintiffs and the defendants; grounds for protecting their independent claims and express opinions about matters to be meditated and resolution of the cases (if any);
• Other participants in the mediation meetings (if any) express their opinions;
• When involved parties and defense counsels of their legitimate rights and interests have expressed their opinions, the Judges shall determined matters that involved parties have or have not agreed about and request involved parties to make additional presentation about unclear and not agreed contents;
• The Judges shall make conclusions of those which involved parties have agreed or not agreed about.
• Court clerks shall be in charge of formulating minutes of meetings for checking the handover of, access to and disclosure of evidences and for mediating
• If involved parties reach agreements about matters to be resolved in civil lawsuits, the Courts shall make minutes of successful mediation. Such minutes shall be immediately sent to involved parties participating in the mediation.

Issuing decisions to recognize the agreements of the involved parties

• The Judge shall only issue a decision to recognize the agreement of the involved parties if they have reached an agreement on the resolution of the whole case.
• Upon the expiry of the 07-day time limit after making the records on successful mediation, if no parties change their opinions on such agreement, the Judge who presides over the mediation session or another Judge who has been assigned by the court’s Chief Justice shall issue a decision recognizing the agreement of the involved parties.
• Within 05 working days after the issuance of the decision to recognize the agreement of the involved parties, the Court must send the decision to the involved parties and the procuracy of the same level.

Effect of decisions to recognize the involved parties’ agreements

• The decisions to recognize the involved parties’ agreements shall take effect immediately after they are issued and are not appealed against according to the appellate procedures.
• The decisions to recognize the involved parties’ agreements may be appealed against according to the cassation procedures only if there are grounds to believe that such agreements were reached as a result of mistakes, deceptions, intimidation, force or they contravene law or social ethics

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