How
US Authorities Could Request for Help on Taking the Evidence in Vietnam for
Civil or Commercial Matters?
The Evidence Collection Convention is a multilateral Hague
Conference convention that was signed on March 18, 1970 and went into effect on
October 7, 1972. The objective of the Convention is to facilitate the
collection of evidence and to harmonize the methods of evidence collection
between States.
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On May 3, 2020, Vietnam became a party to the Convention on the
Collection of Evidence Abroad. After becoming a member of this Convention,
Vietnam only applies and accepts requests for evidence collection by a written
request as described in Chapter I of this Convention. As a result, Vietnam does
not use the process of gathering evidence carried out by a diplomatic officer,
consular officer, or authorized person in Chapter II of the Convention.
Procedures for collecting evidence between the
United States and Vietnam under the Hague Convention
Both Vietnam and the United States are parties to the Convention
on Collection of Evidence. However, since Vietnam only participates in
collecting evidence in writing, the United States has to collect evidence in
Vietnam via this method.
Step 1: The U.S. Agency sends a written request
to collect evidence to the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam
In the settling a case involving a civil or commercial field, the
party can request the Court to assist in collecting evidence in Vietnam. The US
judicial agency will issue a written request for evidence collection to the
competent Vietnamese agency (specifically, the Ministry of Justice). This
document must ensure that follow the contents of Article 3 of the Convention, and
must be written in Vietnamese or accompanied by a Vietnamese translation and
delivered via postal service.
Step 2: A written request for evidence
collection is received by Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice of Vietnam will receive the request for
evidence and decide whether or not to comply with the request for evidence
collection. In the event of a refusal, the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam must
clearly state the reasons specified in Article 12 of this Convention. For
example, the request is not within the scope of the Convention in the civil and
commercial fields, or the implementation of which may be detrimental to the
sovereignty and security of that country, etc.
Step 3: The Ministry of Justice requests
competent agencies to collect evidence
After having sufficient grounds to handle the request of the U.S.
Agency, the Department of Justice will send a written acceptance of the request
to collect evidence to the United States and forward it to the competent
domestic agency for collection evidence process. The Vietnam agency will notify
the U.S. Agency of the time, place, and procedures to collect evidence to be
followed so that relevant parties and their representatives can be present.
When making the written request, a judicial officer from a U.S.
agency may be present, and this presence has to be approved by the Vietnam
Agency. Further, according to Article 11 of this Convention, the person being
asked to provide evidence has the right to refuse to comply with the request
for evidence collection if required by Vietnam law or in the written
request for evidence collection state that they can refuse to provide evidence
expressly stated.
Step 4: The Ministry of Justice of Vietnam sends
a written response on the results of evidence collection to the U.S. Agency
After receiving the results of evidence collection from other
agencies, the Ministry of Justice sends a written response to the results of
evidence collection to the U.S. Agency to compete the process.
To comply with the process and ensure the evidence could be
properly collected for usage in trial, it is important to consult with dispute lawyers in Vietnam for
legal advice.
ANT Lawyers, as a law firm in Vietnam,
will always follows up the evidence in Vietnam for civil or commercial matters
to update clients on regular basis.
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