Bailiff

Implementing the policy of socialization of civil judgment enforcement, since 2009, the legal institution of Bailiff was restored in Vietnam. From then on, the Bailiff (Court Bailiff) has become more and more familiar. In fact, the legal services related to the enforcement of civil judgments that the Bailiff provides gradually become the optimal choice for clients. At the same time, the Bailiff also contributes to a sharing of responsibility, work pressure for the civil judgment enforcement agencies.

The bailiff appeared in Vietnam during the French colonial period. During this period, the bailiff had many different names such as: Court Bailiff (in North Vietnam), the Court Usher (in Central Vietnam), or Bailiff (in South Vietnam). At that time, the Bailiff had the following powers: “To notify of the opening and closing of the court; to subpoena litigants, witnesses; to enforce the order to keep order in courtroom; to serve the documents at the request of the court, to draw up official reports etc.”

For nowadays, the Bailiff is empowered by law to exercise powers such as:

– Service: The nature of the Service is the notification, delivery and receiving of the documents of the Court and the civil judgment enforcement agencies made by the Bailiff in accordance with the law. Although the service of documents is fairly simple to, it is important and always has a great deal of work in proceedings-conducting agencies and civil judgment enforcement agencies. Because “for procedural actions, issuance, service, and notice of procedural brings smoothness to the whole proceedings, they are important links for the conduct of the proceedings process, where only those links are “defective” or “broken” then the legal proceedings are stagnated and stalled.

– Draw up official reports: In essence, official report is a legal document drawn up by the Bailiff to record events and acts used as evidence in the trial and in other legal relationships. In other words, the official report is the basis for carrying out other legitimate transactions in accordance with the law. The official report is a completely exclusive product of the Bailiff. Except for the Bailiff, no subject has the right to draw up an official report.

– Verification of conditions for judgment enforcement: means the collection of information about money and property/asset of individuals or organizations who are subject to judgment enforcement. Thanks to the participation of the Bailiff, the verification conditions for judgment enforcement becomes more effective and faster.

– Direct enforcement of judgments and decisions by the Bailiff: enforcement of judgments and decisions at the request of the involved parties is the activity carried out by the Bailiff when directly organizing the enforcement of the civil judgments and decisions at the request of the involved parties and using the professional measures prescribed in the Civil Judgment Enforcement Law. In fact, this is a very important and difficult activity of the Bailiff. Thanks to the participation of the Bailiff, civil judgments and decisions have been quickly executed, thereby ensuring the legal rights and interests of the involved parties.

Thus, at present, the legal services provided by the Bailiff provide additional options for involved parties when having demands related to civil judgment enforcement activities. However, in the long run, it is necessary to develop the law on Bailiff as has been done previously with Lawyer and Notary. Because of this, the popularity and legal force of the Bailiff are really strengthened and gained more the trust of the masses of the people.