05 cases of Law Practice Certificate revocation

05 cases where the Lawyer Practice Certificate will be revoked (illustration)

According to Article 3 Circular 17/2011/TT-BTP, the Lawyer Practice Certificate will be revoked in the following cases:

1. The Minister of Justice decides to revoke the Lawyer Practice Certificate if the lawyer falls under one of the cases stipulated in Clause 1, Article 18 of the Law on Lawyers.

2. In the case of disciplinary action by means of removing the lawyer's name from the list of the Bar Association, within seven working days from the date of the disciplinary decision, the Lawyers' Association's Executive Committee that disciplined the lawyer shall send a written proposal to the Minister of Justice for the revocation of the Lawyer Practice Certificate.

   The person whose Lawyer Practice Certificate is revoked must cease practicing law from the date of the disciplinary decision to remove their name from the list of the Bar Association.

3. When it is discovered that the lawyer falls under one of the cases stipulated in points a, b, c, d, and e, Clause 1, Article 18 of the Law on Lawyers, the Bar Association of which the lawyer is a member, or other agencies and organizations, may send a written proposal to the Minister of Justice to revoke that lawyer's Practice Certificate.

4. Within fifteen days from the date of receiving the written proposal to revoke the Lawyer Practice Certificate, the Minister of Justice shall issue a decision to revoke the Lawyer Practice Certificate.

   The decision to revoke the Lawyer Practice Certificate is sent to the person whose certificate is revoked, the Bar Association of which the person was a member, the Vietnam Bar Federation, central legal proceedings agencies, the Department of Justice, and local legal proceedings agencies where the Bar Association, of which the person was a member, is based. It shall also be published on the Ministry of Justice's electronic portal.

   Within seven working days from the date of receiving the decision to revoke the Lawyer Practice Certificate, the Vietnam Bar Federation issues a decision to revoke the Lawyer Card of the person whose certificate is revoked. The Executive Committee of the Bar Association, where the person was a member, is responsible for collecting and destroying the Lawyer Practice Certificate and the Lawyer Card of that person.

5. The Lawyer Practice Certificate and the Lawyer Card are destroyed by cutting off the top-left corner. The destruction of the Lawyer Practice Certificate and the Lawyer Card must be documented in a minutes signed by the Chairman of the Bar Association, the Chairman of the Bar Association's Reward and Discipline Council, and a representative of the Department of Justice where the Bar Association is headquartered. Two copies of the minutes are made, one kept at the Bar Association where the person was a member and one kept at the Department of Justice where the Bar Association is headquartered.

   The destroyed Lawyer Practice Certificate is handed over to and stored at the Department of Justice in accordance with legal archive regulations.

More details can be found in Circular 17/2011/TT-BTP, effective from December 1, 2011.

Thuy Tram

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