THỜI HẠN GIAO NỘP TÀI LIỆU, CHỨNG CỨ TRONG VỤ ÁN DÂN SỰ / TIME LIMIT FOR SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS AND

Legal situation: Hello Lawyer, I am currently preparing a petition for divorce and division of marital property. I understand that I must submit documents and evidence to support my claims. Could you please advise when and within what time limit I must submit such documents and evidence to the Court? I look forward to receiving your advice.

FDVN’s opinion:

Thank you for sending your question to FDVN Law Firm (“FDVN”). In response to your request for legal advice, after reviewing the relevant legal provisions, FDVN would like to provide the following comments:

It is stipulated in Article 91 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code that a litigant requesting the Court to protect his or her lawful rights and interests bears the burden of collecting, providing, and submitting documents and evidence to the Court in order to prove that such request is well-founded and lawful.

Clause 4, Article 96 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code provides that the time limit for submission of documents and evidence shall be determined by the Judge but must not exceed the statutory time limit for trial preparation under first-instance procedures or the time limit for preparation of the resolution of civil matters prescribed by the Civil Procedure Code.

Where, after the Court has issued a decision to bring the case to trial under first-instance procedures or a decision to open a meeting for resolution of a civil matter, a litigant subsequently submits documents or evidence that the Court had previously requested but which the litigant could not submit earlier due to legitimate reasons, the litigant must prove the justification for such late submission.

With respect to documents and evidence that the Court had not previously requested, or documents and evidence that the litigant could not reasonably have known about during the first-instance proceedings, the litigant may submit and present such documents and evidence at the first-instance hearing, the meeting for resolution of the civil matter, or at subsequent stages of the civil proceedings.

Accordingly, under the above provisions, documents and evidence should generally be submitted to the Court within the trial preparation period for first-instance proceedings or the preparation period for resolution of civil matters. After a decision has been issued to bring the case to trial or to open a meeting for resolution of a civil matter, documents and evidence may still be submitted, provided that there is a legitimate reason for the late submission and that such reason can be substantiated.

The above constitutes FDVN’s legal opinion based on our review of the applicable legal provisions. We hope that this advice is helpful to you.

Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang - FDVN Law Firm