VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephen Le Hoang Chuong, Le & Tran
cases where monetary damages would be an inadequate remedy. • Injunction: An injunction is an order that pro- hibits the defendant from engaging in certain conduct. Injunctions are typically awarded in cases where the defendant’s conduct is caus- ing or is likely to cause harm to the plaintiff. • Declaratory relief: Declaratory relief is an order that declares the rights of the parties or the legal relationship between the parties. Declaratory relief is typically awarded in cases where there is a dispute about the parties’ rights or obligations. • Costs: Costs are the expenses that a litigant incurs in bringing or defending a lawsuit. Costs can include filing fees, legal fees, and expert witness fees. The losing party may be ordered to pay all of the successful party’s court costs. In addition to these common forms of award, attorney fees may be awarded to the prevailing party if there is a prior agreement, or the dispute relates to intellectual property rights. 9.2 Rules Regarding Damages There are a number of key rules regarding dam- ages: • A causal relationship must exist between the acts and the damage that occurs. • Actual damage must be compensated in full and in a timely manner. • The aggrieved party must adopt necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or miti- gate its damages. • Damages are paid in correspondence to the degree of fault. The defendant may be dis- charged from the duty to compensate should the damage be entirely due to the fault of the aggrieved party or due to a force majeure event.
Vietnamese law does not have a concept of punitive damages for compensation, but it may impose a “penalty” as a punishment on the breaching party in a contractual relationship. For a civil contract, the party may set an unlimited penalty but in some cases the court will often limit the penalty to a reasonable amount. For a commercial contract dispute, the amount of the penalty shall be agreed upon between the par- ties but shall not exceed 8% of the value of the breached portion of the contract (or 12% of the value of the breached portion of a construction contract in certain circumstances). 9.3 Pre-judgment and Post-judgment Interest Pre-judgment Interest The prevailing party may request and be award- ed pre-judgment interest, with the interest rate based on the parties’ agreements if available. Parties may agree on the applicable interest but it should not be higher than 20%/year. In case there is no agreement on the applicable interest, the claiming party may apply interest at 10%/ year. Post-judgment Interest After the first instance judgment is rendered, the interest shall continue to be calculated from the next day until the actual payment day if so requested by the prevailing party. In practice, the involved parties should clearly request this amount so that such claim will be included in the judgment to ensure enforceability at the enforce- ment stage. 9.4 Enforcement Mechanisms of a Domestic Judgment The prevailing party may request that the enforcement agency enforce the judgment. The judgment debtor will then receive a notice with a compliance deadline from the enforcement
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