The latest regulations on solicitation for judicial expertise in Vietnam

The latest regulations on solicitation for judicial expertise in Vietnam (Internet image)

1. The latest regulations on solicitation for judicial expertise in Vietnam

Article 25 of the Law on Judicial Expertise 2012 (amended by Clause 15, Article 1 of the Law on amendments and supplements to certain Articles of the Law on Judicial Expertise 2020) stipulates the request for judicial expertise as follows:

- The solicitor for judicial expertise shall issue the written decision to solicit judicial expertise, and sending that decision, enclosing subjects of the judicial expertise, information, documents and objects (if any) relevant to individuals or organizations providing judicial expertise service.  If these subjects of the judicial expertise, relevant information, documents and objects are unlikely to be attached to the decision to solicit judicial expertise, the solicitor for judicial expertise shall be responsible for carrying out necessary procedures for transfer thereof to individuals or organizations providing judicial expertise service.

- The decision to solicit judicial expertise must include the followings:

+ Name of the authority soliciting judicial expertise; full name of the person having jurisdiction to solicit judicial expertise;

+ Name or full name of the organization or person solicited to provide judicial expertise service;

+ Summary of main points of the case or matter;

+ Name and characteristics of the subject of judicial expertise;

+ Name of related documents, objects or verification samples attached hereto (if any);

+ Specialized contents of issues subject to the judicial expertise;

+ Date (day, month and year) of the solicitation for the judicial expertise and time limit for notification of the judicial expert conclusion or testimony.

- In case of soliciting the additional or repeated judicial expertise, the decision to solicit a judicial expertise activity must clearly state whether to solicit an additional or repeated judicial expertise activity and the reasons for that additional or repeated judicial expertise.

- Where necessary, before issuing a decision to solicit a decision to solicit a judicial expertise activity, competent procedural authorities and persons shall confer with persons or organizations expected to be solicited for judicial expertise and other relevant agencies about the contents of solicitation, time limit for judicial expertise, information, documents and specimens needed for the judicial expertise and other relevant matters (if any).

- In case where the contents of judicial expertise relate to many fields and fall within the remit of multiple organizations, the solicitor for judicial expertise must separate contents to solicit appropriate specialized organizations to carry out the judicial expertise.

Where the contents of judicial expertise are related to multiple specializations which are closely related to each other, are under the responsibility of various organizations, but the separation of contents makes it difficult for the implementation of judicial expertise, affecting the accuracy of the expert results or prolonging the expertise time length, the solicitor for judicial expertise must determine the main contents of judicial expertise in order to identify the presiding and cooperating body involved in providing the judicial expertise service.

The presiding body shall be responsible for acting as the focal point in taking charge of the general judicial expertise and undertaking the contents of the judicial expertise falling within their specialization.

Within 05 working days of receipt of the decision to solicit the judicial expertise, the organization solicited for judicial expertise must send a letter seconding a judicial expert to the person soliciting judicial expertise; as for the organization cooperating in conducting judicial expertise, they must send a letter seconding a judicial expert to the organization presiding over the implementation of judicial expertise. The presiding organization must implement the judicial expertise immediately after receipt of the letter seconding the judicial expert from the organization cooperating in the implementation of judicial expertise.   In this case, the judicial expertise shall be carried out in the form of a judicial expertise on collectives falling within various professional domains specified in Clause 3 of Article 28 herein.

In case problems arise from the solicitation or cooperation in carrying out the judicial expertise, jurisdictional procedural authorities and persons shall preside over and cooperate with the organization solicited to conduct the judicial expertise in taking action.

2. Cases ineligible for performing judicial expertise in Vietnam

Article 34 of the Law on Judicial Expertise 2012 stipulates the cases ineligible for performing judicial expertise as follows:

* A person who falls into any of the following cases may not perform judicial expertise:

+ Any of the cases prescribed by the procedure law in which he/she must refuse to participate in the procedure or must be changed;

+ He/she is invited to perform re-expertise of the same content in a case or matter for which he/she has performed expertise, unless otherwise provided by law.

* An institution which falls into any of the following cases may not perform judicial expertise:

+ It has rights or obligations related to the case or matter in accordance with the procedure law;

+ There is a clear ground to believe that it may not be objective and impartial in performing expertise.

To Quoc Trinh

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