VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephen Le Hoang Chuong, Le & Tran
rather than extensive pre-trial discovery. Parties are expected to prepare and produce their evi- dence, including documents and testimonies of witnesses, as part of the trial procedure. There is typically no formal process for deposing wit- nesses or extensive pre-trial document produc- tion. The responsibility for gathering and presenting evidence primarily lies with the litigants them- selves. They are expected to submit the neces- sary evidence and documents in support of their claims or defences to the court during the trial. However, in some cases, the court’s involvement in the collection of evidence is available upon the parties’ request, if they are able to show that best efforts were made to collect evidence but failed to do so. This request must identify the issues that need to be proven by the evidence, the relevant evidence to be gathered, and the reasons why the requesting party cannot gather the evidence in question. The court will then decide whether to formally require the individu- als or organisations with possession of, or con- trol over, the evidence in question, to provide it to the court. 5.5 Legal Privilege Vietnamese law does not recognise the concept of legal privilege (attorney-client or work product protection) in the same way that common law jurisdictions do. However, the Law on Lawyers does impose a duty of confidentiality on lawyers. This means that lawyers are prohibited from dis- closing information that they obtain in the per- formance of their professional responsibilities, except where the client agrees in writing to such disclosure or as stipulated by law. The Law on Lawyers does not distinguish between external and in-house counsel. There-
fore, both external and in-house counsel have a duty of confidentiality concerning their clients. There are a few exceptions to the duty of confi- dentiality. For example, lawyers are required to disclose information that is necessary to prevent the commission of a crime or to comply with a court order. 5.6 Rules Disallowing Disclosure of a Document The law is silent on situations where a party is allowed to withhold a specific document dur- ing the proceedings. In practice, even if the evidence contains state secrets, trade secrets, or private information, it must be presented in court. The court shall have its own discretion to allow a party to not disclose confidential infor- mation as specified under the laws. 6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief Vietnam has provisional emergency measures (roughly akin to temporary injunctive relief in certain other jurisdictions). Provisional emer- gency measures are where courts can tempo- rarily address the urgent requests of the involved parties to preserve the status quo or prevent irreparable harm. The court may grant the following injunctive relief measures: • distraining the property in dispute; • prohibiting any transfer of property rights concerning the property in dispute; • prohibiting any change in the status quo of the property in dispute;
1527 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook