Collection of judgments on dispute over legal service in Vietnam

Lawnet would like to answer your questions as follows:  

1. What is contract for legal services?  

Contract for services: According to the provisions of Article 513 of Vietnam's Civil Code 2015, contract for services means an agreement between parties whereby a service provider performs an act for a client which pays a fee for that act.

Contract for legal services: In the legal documents of Vietnam, there is no regulation on what is a legal service contract. However, the concept can be generalized as follows:

Contract for legal services is a type of contract in the professional service industry, whereby the lawyer provides legal services to the hirer, and the hirer must pay the agreed remuneration.

Subjects that can provide legal services: law-practicing organizations, lawyers practicing in their own capacity, attorneys' offices, and commercial arbitration organizations.

2. Some judgments on legal service disputes in Vietnam

Judgment 21/2021/DS-ST dated Feb 26, 2021 on legal service contract dispute

- Level of trial: First instance

- Judicial body: My Tho City People's Court, Tien Giang Province

- Quoting the content: "On March 16, 2014, Mr. Le Hong P signed a legal services contract with Lawyer Nguyen Minh Hoang H of the Law Office of Nguyen Minh H."
According to the agreement, Ms. Hoang H acts as the authorized representative for Mr. P's mother, Ms. Duong Thi X, to participate in the lawsuit in the case of a land use right dispute with H Primary School, T commune, P district, Tien Giang province at the People's Courts at all levels. Ms. H guarantees that the Court will accept Ms. X's petition; if not, Ms. H will refund the service fee of VND 70,000,000. Mr. P gave Ms. Ha 20,000,000 VND on the day of signing the contract and another 50,000,000 VND on March 31, 2014. Ms. Ha received enough money and signed. After that, Ms. H received an additional 1,500,000 VND to carry out the appeal procedures.

Judgment 759/2018/DS-PT dated August 20, 2018 on a legal service contract dispute

- Level of trial: appellate

- Judicial body: Ho Chi Minh City People's Court

- Quoting the content: "During the course of the Company's carrying out civil judgment enforcement procedures for legally effective judgments and participating in the judgment enforcement process, in accordance with the contract's agreement; However, Ms. T unilaterally withdrew her request for judgment enforcement at 10:15 am on November 4, 2016 at District O's Judgment Execution Sub-Department for the following reasons: Ms. T has reached an agreement to settle it with Ms. D and Mr. X. For this reason, District O's Judgment Execution Sub-Department issued Decision No. 06 to suspend judgment execution on November 4, 2016. When the company discovered the above incident, it contacted Ms. T to liquidate the contract. However, Ms. T always evades, does not work, and does not pay any expenses to the company, causing damage to the company. The fact that Ms. T unilaterally agreed to withdraw the request for judgment enforcement because she had reached an agreement with Ms. D and Mr. X but did not notify the company that she had violated Article 5 of the contract

Judgment 53/2021/DS-PT dated Feb 24, 2021 on legal service contract dispute

- Level of trial: appellate

- Judicial body: Ben Tre Province People's Court

- Quoting the content: "Lawyer B's office is required to appoint an employee to represent Mr. L in the loan dispute proceedings before the Court and the relevant state agencies. As soon as the office party is executed, Mr. L's party will pay the remuneration to the office in proportion to the rate at which each judgment is executed. However, during the case settlement proceedings, the Court held conciliation sessions three times: on May 24, 2012, July 19, 2012, and June 4, 2013, all with Mr. Self present.The plaintiff also failed to produce any documents showing that he has appointed a representative to represent Mr. L and participate in the proceedings.The plaintiff said that he assisted Mr. L in carrying out the procedures for notifying Mr. T to find a person absent from the place of residence for Mr. T, Mrs. T1, with lawyer Tran Huu K registered to participate in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Mr. T. Mr. L, but due to successful mediation, lawyer K did not participate in the defense.However, the fact that the lawyer's office assisted Mr. L in carrying out the procedures for notifying him to search for a person absent from his or her place of residence and appointing a person to protect his or her legitimate rights and interests is not included in the contract's "appoint a representative to participate in the proceedings." "It is only in the case of supporting travel and procedures and has been paid at a cost of 10,000,000 VND."

Judgment 08/2019/KDTM-PT dated May 23, 2019 on a legal service contract dispute

- Trial level: appellate

- Judicial body: Hai Phong City People's Court

- Quoting the content: "According to Legal Service Contract No. 10/2017/HDDV-MT dated April 28, 2017 and Legal Service Contract No. 20-2017/HDDV-MT dated June 15, 2017, Law Firm A requires TP Company to pay a total amount of VND 233,011,938 using the above determination method.If TP Company does not pay the specific amount of the unpaid amount of VND 150,000,000 to Company A, Law Firm A will sue to force TP Company to pay the remuneration for handling the work and VAT.*

Judgment 37/2019/DS-ST dated August 6, 2019 on legal service contract disputes and property claims

- Level of trial: First instance

- Judicial body: People's Court of Dong Anh District, Hanoi City

- Quote from the content: "On May 19, 2004, Mr. Truong Van D's family consisted of his grandparents: Truong Van D, Truong Van N, and Nguyen Thi L1 (the mother of Mr. Truong Minh T2). Truong Thi P is the service requester (hereinafter referred to as party A), and HL Law Office, now HL Law Firm, is a service provider (hereinafter referred to as party B). The two parties sign a legal service contract with the following contents: Party A hires Party B to initiate a lawsuit at the court to reclaim the pond land in parcel 108, the cadastral map of Van Noi commune in 1986. The land plot originating from Mr. Truong Van T3 was encroached on by Mr. Nguyen Van Q's family, with the remuneration for legal services equal to 50% of the property value as decided by the court at the time of payment. land or in money (Article 3). For fees and charges as prescribed in the process of claiming pond land, Party B will advance and Party A will pay when selling the land (Article 3.2). Party A is responsible for appointing a representative, namely Mr. Truong Minh T2, to work directly with Party B (Article 4.2.2). On June 22, 2005, the two parties signed an agreement with the nature of an appendix to the contract amending Articles 3 (3.1 and 3.3) and Article 4 (2.3) of the legal service contract dated May 19, 2004 and adjusting the remuneration for service charges to an amount equal to 62% of the property value after being claimed.

Best regards!

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