Is a legal aid-providing person working 3 hours calculated as a working session in Vietnam?

Is a legal aid-providing person working 3 hours calculated as a working session in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 3 of Circular 02/2021/TT-BTP regulating working time based on actual working sessions as follows:

1. Working time based on actual working sessions (a half of working day) applies to legal aid case in the form of participation in proceedings, extrajudicial representation by legal aid-providing persons as a basis for payment of remuneration and gratuity for the performance of legal aid services.

2. An actual working session is calculated on the basis of 04 working hours. In case the legal aid-providing person works less than 04 hours, the calculation shall be as follows:

a) Calculated as a half of working session if the number of working hours is less than 03 hours;

b) Calculated as a working session if the number of working hours is at least 03 hours.

3. When applying the method of calculating working time based on actual working sessions, the legal aid-providing person must list the tasks and equivalent time performed in the Schedule of actual working time (Form TP-TGPL-01) ) issued together with this Circular.

Thus, a legal aid-providing person working 3 hours in a session is still counted as 1 working session according to the above regulations in Vietnam.

Is a legal aid-providing person working 3 hours calculated as a working session in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

Is the time for preparing arguments for defense calculated as ground for calculating the working time to provide legal aid in Vietnam?

According to the provisions in Clause 1, Article 4 of Circular 02/2021/TT-BTP on the time to participate in criminal proceedings as follows:

1. Grounds for calculating the working time to provide legal aid for cases participating in criminal procedures include:

a) Participating in interrogation of the accused or taking testimonies of the accused, victims, witnesses and involved parties in criminal cases;

b) Participating in confrontation, recognition, voice recognition, crime scene examination, autopsies, examination of traces on the body, experimental investigation and performing other proceedings as upon request of the presiding agencies;

c) Working with presiding officers, presiding agencies;

d) Verifying, taking, and evaluating relevant documents, objects and evidence according to proceeding stages;

dd) Working with the accused at the custody room of the border guard station, the remand center, detention center or the prison;

e) Meeting with the accused on bail or relatives of the accused; the victim or kindred of the victim; witnesses, involved parties in criminal cases and other participants in legal proceedings;

g) Studying case files, copying, and preparing documents at the presiding agencies or at the Center, Branch, or organization signing contract to provide legal aid;

h) Preparing arguments for defense and contest;

i) Participating in court hearings. In case a legal aid-providing person appears in court but the court session is adjourned not due to the request of the legal aid-providing person and without prior notice, the working time of the legal aid-providing person begins from the time when he/she has worked with presiding agencies and presiding persons on related matters the time when the court session is adjourned;

k) Performing work related to procedures for appealing the first-instance judgments, appellate judgments, cassation procedures or reopening procedures;

l) Performing other reasonable tasks as prescribed by law in service of defense and contest.

According to this Article, the time to prepare arguments for defense for the defendant is counted as ground for calculating the working time to provide legal aid in Vietnam for cases participating in criminal proceedings according to the above regulations.

Best regards!