Vietnam: From January 01, 2021, judicial expertise performers have the right to refuse judicial expertise

Rights and obligations of judicial expertise performers when performing judicial expertise are specified in Article 23 of the Law on judicial expertise 2012 of Vietnam. Specifically, according to this Law, judicial expertise performers only have the following rights:

Article 23. Rights and obligations of judicial expertise performers when performing judicial expertise

1. Judicial expertise performers have the following rights:

a/ To select necessary and appropriate methods of performing expertise according to contents requested for expertise;

b/ To use additional experimental or testing results or professional conclusions made by other institutions or individuals for their expertise;

c/ To be independent in making expertising conclusions.

However, Clause 13 Article 1 of the Law on amendments and supplements to certain articles of Law on judicial expertise 2020 of Vietnam has supplemented 3 other rights of judicial expertise performers, which are:

- Petition the judicial expertise solicitor or the competent authority to take protective measures as prescribed by law if there is a sign that life, health, honor, dignity or property of the judicial expert himself/herself or his/her relatives is at risk due to his/her implementation of judicial expertise or participation in a case or matter in the name of a judicial expert;

- Refuse to carry out the judicial expertise activity in cases prescribed in Clause 2 of Article 11 herein;

- Take an appropriate seat while participating in the court process.

Of these 03 rights, judicial expertise performers may only exercise the right to refuse judicial expertise in the following cases:

Refuse to provide judicial expertise service in cases where the subject matters of the solicited or requested expertise is irrelevant to the judicial expert’s professional scope, or the judicial expert does not fully meet qualification requirements or conditions necessary for the provision of judicial expertise service; information about the subject of judicial expertise and related documents are not provided in full or are invalid to help give judicial expert conclusions or testimonies after the solicitor or petitioner’s failure to make any requested modification thereof; the time length needed to conduct a judicial expertise activity is not adequate; the independence and objectivity of a judicial expertise activity are not assured. In case of refusal to provide judicial expertise service, within 05 working days of receipt of the decision to solicit or petition for judicial expertise, it is obligatory to notify the solicitor or petitioner for judicial expertise in writing with clear reasons to be stated. (Clause 7 Article 1 of the Law on amendments and supplements to certain articles of Law on judicial expertise 2020 of Vietnam amending Clause 2 Article 11 of the Law on judicial expertise 2012)

Thus, from January 01, 2021, the Law on amendments and supplements to certain articles of Law on judicial expertise 2020 supplements 03 more rights of judicial expertise performers. In particular, this subject has the right to refuse the assessment  in certain cases.

View more details at the Law on amendments and supplements to certain articles of Law on judicial expertise 2020 of Vietnam, effective from January 01, 2021.

Phuong Thanh

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