The 2015 Civil Procedure Code provides regulations on the protector of the lawful rights and interests of litigants, including who may serve in this role and the registration procedures before the Court. This article will clarify those issues.
- The protector of the lawful rights and interests of the litigant is a person participating in proceedings to defend the litigant’s lawful rights and interests.
- The following persons may act as protectors of the lawful rights and interests of a litigant upon the litigant’s request and after completing registration procedures with the Court:
a) Lawyers participating in proceedings in accordance with the Law on Lawyers;
b) Legal aid officers or persons participating in legal aid in accordance with the Law on Legal Aid;
c) Representatives of labor collective organizations who protect the rights and interests of employees in labor disputes, in accordance with the laws on labor and trade unions;
d) Vietnamese citizens with full civil act capacity, without criminal records or whose criminal records have been expunged, not subject to administrative handling measures, and who are not officials, public servants in Courts or Procuracies, or officers/non-commissioned officers in the People’s Public Security force. - A protector of the lawful rights and interests of a litigant may protect multiple litigants in the same case, provided that their rights and interests do not conflict. Conversely, multiple protectors may jointly defend a single litigant in the same case.
- To request registration of a protector with the Court, the applicant must submit the following documents:
a) Lawyers: documents as prescribed by the Law on Lawyers;
b) Legal aid officers or participants: a written assignment from the legal aid organization and a legal aid officer card or lawyer’s card;
c) Representatives of labor collective organizations: a written assignment from their organization authorizing them to protect the rights and interests of employees or groups of employees;
d) Qualified Vietnamese citizens: the litigant’s request letter and personal identification papers. - After examining the documents, if the applicant meets the conditions to act as a protector, within 03 working days from the date of receiving the request, the Court must enter the protector’s information into the register and confirm the litigant’s request form. In case of refusal, the Court must issue a written notice clearly stating the reasons.
(Legal basis: Article 75, Civil Procedure Code 2015)
