Duration of judicial records

1. Current regulations on the duration of judicial records

According to the provisions of Article 44 of the Law on Judicial Records 2009, the agencies competent to issue judicial record cards include the National Center for Judicial Records - the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Justice. Accordingly, the National Center for Judicial Records shall issue judicial records in the following cases: (1) Vietnamese citizens whose permanent or temporary residence cannot be identified; (2) Foreigners already residing in Vietnam.

The Department of Justice shall issue judicial record cards in the following cases: (1) Vietnamese citizens permanently or temporarily residing in the country; (2) Vietnamese citizens residing abroad; (3) Foreigners residing in Vietnam.

Currently, the 2009 Law on Judicial Records and documents detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Judicial Records do not stipulate the expiry date of judicial records. However, depending on the nature and field of management, the term of use of a judicial record is regulated differently in other legal documents. Specifically:

According to Article 20(1)(d) of the 2008 Law on Nationality, it stipulates: “Judicial record issued by a competent Vietnamese authority for the time the applicant for Vietnamese citizenship resides in Vietnam, judicial record issued by a competent foreign agency for the time the applicant for Vietnamese citizenship resides abroad. Judicial records must be issued within 90 days to the date of submitting applications.

In Article 5 of Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP dated March 21, 2011 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Adoption, it is stated that:

(1) The judicial record of the domestic adopter is valid if it is issued within 06 months from the date of submission of the application at the commune-level People's Committee.

(2) The judicial record of the person who has adopted a Vietnamese child abroad is valid if it is issued less than 12 months to the date of submission of the application at the Department of Adoption.

(3) The judicial record of the head of the foreign adoption organization and of the person expected to be the head of the Foreign Adoption Office in Vietnam is valid for use if it is issued less than 06 months to the date of submitting an application at the Department of Adoption.

For the field of notarization and lawyers, it is also specified in the dossier when requesting the appointment of a notary (Article 12(2) of the Law on Notarization 2014) or granting a law practice certificate (Article 1(8) of the Law on Amendments, supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Lawyers 2012) must have a judicial record. However, both of the abovementioned Law do not stipulate the time limit for using the Judicial Record (from what time the judicial record card is issued, before the application is submitted).

In addition, in the current regulations of recruitment of civil servants, the dossier must have a judicial record card, but it is not clear when the judicial record card was issued.

Through the above analysis, it is shown that the current legal regulations of Vietnam do not specify the term of use of the judicial record; The term of use of the judicial record depends on the provisions in the regulations of each different legal field and depends on the will of the agency or organization wishing to investigate about the judicial record status of the applicant. Since then, the situation of requesting for issuance of judicial records of organizations and individuals has increased, putting great pressure on competent agencies in searching and verifying the issuance of judicial records.

2. Legal basis

• Judicial Record Law 2009.

• Law on Notarization 2014.

• Law on Lawyers 2012.

• Nationality Law 2008.

• Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP dated March 21, 2011 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Adoption.

Thus, in order to be able to determine the duration of judicial records, individuals need to base themselves on the request of the competent agency. The duration from the application for the judicial record to the time of submission must not exceed the time limit required by the decision-making agency.