The Procedures For Settlements Of Civil Contract Disputes

Currently, civil contract disputes are one of the most common types of civil disputes. So when a dispute occurs, how will the civil contract disputes procedures take place? Lac Duy & Associates will give you a dispute settlement process for your reference.

More information: Civil Disputes And Methods Of Civil Dispute Resolution

What is the civil contract dispute?

Currently, the law does not have specific provisions on civil contract disputes. It can be understood that civil contract disputes are conflicts, conflicts, disagreements between parties about the performance or non-performance of rights and obligations in contractual relationships.

The most common types of civil contract disputes today are disputes with the following contents:

• The effective term of the contract.

• Time of risk transfer;

• Time of delivery, time of payment;

• Rights and obligations between the parties in the contract;

• Price, payment method;

• Object of the contract;

• Quantity and quality of products and goods;

• Liability to compensate for damage and fine of violations.

The procedures for the settlement of civil contract disputes

 Negotiation

• The essence of the contract is agreement. Therefore, negotiation is the preferred method to settle disputes between the parties.

• The parties will meet, exchange, agree on disagreements, and come to a unified agreement. For the negotiation to be most effective, the parties need to have a clear understanding of the contract and legal provisions to negotiate.

• For the negotiation process to be effective, the parties can ask lawyers to participate as their representatives.

 Conciliation

Like negotiation, conciliation is a process of exchanging, agreeing,  and bringing a unified agreement of the parties. However, the conciliation has the intervention of a third party, who is the mediator to resolve conflicts, contradictions and come up with an agreement.

 Settlement of disputes by a court

In case of failure to negotiate or mediate, the parties can file a lawsuit in court or request a dispute settlement at arbitration.

Procedures for settling civil contract disputes by a court:

Step 1: Determine the competent Court

Under the provisions of Article 26 and Clause 1, Article 35 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015, the People’s Court of districts is the Court with jurisdiction to settle civil disputes. Except for the cases specified in Clause 3, Article 35 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015, which will fall under the jurisdiction of the People’s Court of Provinces, specifically: “Disputes and requests prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, which involve parties or properties in foreign countries or which must be judicially entrusted to representative agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam overseas or to foreign courts/competent agencies, shall not fall under the jurisdiction of People’s Courts of districts, except for cases specified in clause 4 of this Article.“

The territorial jurisdiction of Courts to settle civil lawsuits shall be determined as the Courts of the localities where the defendants reside or work.

For a dispute arising out of a contractual relationship, the parties can choose the Court where the contract is performed to settle.

Step 2: Prepare the lawsuit petition

• Lawsuit petition;

• Identity card, household registration book of the petitioner;

• Papers and documents proving the defendant’s current residence status;

• Papers, documents proving that there is a dispute arising from a civil contract;

• Papers, documents proving that the petitioner has infringed his legitimate rights and interests from such civil contract.

Step 3: File a lawsuit petition at court

• The petitioner can file a lawsuit through the postal service or directly at the Court.

• When receiving a petition filed, the Court shall immediately issue a receipt of the petition to the petitioner. In case of receipt of the petition by post, within 02 working days from the day on which the petition is received, the Court must send a notice of receipt to the petitioner. If the petition is received by the method of online submission, the Court must immediately notify the petitioner of the petition via its web portal.

Step 4: The court reviews the petition

After the Court receives the petition, the Court will consider the petition and issue one of the following notices:

Returning the lawsuit petition: After receiving the lawsuit petition, if the case falls into the case of returning the petition as provided for in the Code of Civil Procedure, the Court shall return the petition and accompany materials and evidence and notify the petitioner in writing.

Notice of modification and supplementation of lawsuit petitions: in case, the Court finds that the plaintiff must amend or supplement the lawsuit petition or provide additional documents and evidence to clarify the right to initiate a lawsuit and grounds to initiate a lawsuit.

Notice of payment of court cost advances: if the case meets all conditions to initiate lawsuits and the lawsuit petition has followed the regulations, the Court shall notify the plaintiff to pay the advance court fees according to law provisions. Except for cases exempted from advance court fees

Notice of acceptance of the case: the Court shall issue a notice of acceptance of the case in case the petition is complete under the law and the plaintiff has returned to the Court the receipt of advance payment in time.

Step 5: The court proceeds to resolve the case

Time limit for settlement of the case: the time for conciliation and trial preparation is 4-6 months from the date of acceptance of the case. Time limit to open a court hearing: Within 30 days from the date the Court issues the decision to bring the case to trial, the Court may extend it according to the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure.

During the preparation time for the first-instance trial of the case, the Court shall conduct conciliation so that the involved parties can reach an agreement on the settlement of the case. In case, the parties cannot mediate, the Court will conduct legal proceedings to serve the settlement of the case.

After that, the Court will bring the case to trial, according to the first instance procedures. In case the involved parties file appeals or the procuracies file appeals, the cases may continue the trial according to appellate procedures.

Above is the consulting opinion of Lac Duy & Associates on the civil contract disputes procedures process. This is also a reference source for readers to resolve this dispute. In addition, readers can contact Lac Duy & Associates to receive timely advice and support on other issues such as: property loan contract disputes, goods sale, and purchase contract disputes, contracts transfer of land use rights, house purchase and sale contract, contract of the promise to purchase promised sale, contract of deposit…