THE SOLUTION FOR THE RETURN OF THE LAWSUIT PETITION SINCE THE PETITIONER FAILS TO SUPPLEMENT DOCUMENTS AND EVIDENCE AT THE JUDGE’S REQUEST

In reality, many lawsuit petitions are returned by the Judge due to the reason that the petitioner fails to provide additional documents and evidence at the request of the Judge. In this article, TNTP hereby mentions and analyzes the grounds for the Judge to return the lawsuit petition under the law, as well as provides the solution for the petitioner when encountering this situation.

1. Grounds for the judge to request the petitioner to supplement documents and evidence

After receiving the lawsuit petition, the Judge in charge will request to amend and supplement the missing information in the petition for sufficient grounds to process the lawsuit settlement. Article 96.1 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code stipulates that: “If the handed documents, evidence are inadequate to form the base for settlement of the cases, the Judge shall request the involved parties to supplement the documents, evidence. If the involved parties fail to hand over the documents, evidence or do not hand over adequately the documents, evidence requested by the Courts, the Courts shall resolve the civil cases under the documents and evidence handed over by the involved parties and those collected by the Courts according to regulations in Article 97 of this Code”. Therefore, in case documents and evidence have been handed over but are inadequate or do not ensure the base for the lawsuit settlement, the Judge has the right to request the petitioner to supplement documents.

Under Article 106.2 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, the petitioners have the right to request the Courts to collect documents and evidence related to the lawsuits or to issue decisions requesting agencies, organizations, or individuals keeping or managing the materials, evidence to provide them with those documents and evidence if they have applied all necessary measures but still fail to collect those documents and evidence.

Thus, in case the petition dossier is inadequate to form the base for settlement, the Court has the right to request the petitioner to supplement documents and evidence related to the dispute.

2. Grounds for the Judge to return the lawsuit petition when the petitioner fails to supplement documents and evidence at the Judge’s request

Under Article 192.1.e and Article 193.2 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, the Judge has the right to return the lawsuit petition in case the petition fails to amend and supplement the lawsuit petition under Article 189.4 of this Code. Accordingly, the lawsuit petition must involve a list of documents and evidence proving that the legitimate rights and interests of the petitioner are infringed upon. Under Article 189.5 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, if the petitioner fails to submit adequate documents and evidence attached to the lawsuit petition due to objective reasons, they must submit available documents and evidence to prove that their legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon.

Therefore, in case the petitioner has provided evidence proving that his/her rights and interests are infringed upon but failed to supplement other documents and evidence at the request of the Judge, the Judge does not have the ground to return the lawsuit petition under Article 192.1.e of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code. At that time, the Judge must accept the lawsuit petition based on consideration of the submitted documents and evidence.

3. The solution for the petitioner

Under Articles 194.1 and 194.4 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code on Complaints, recommendations about the return of lawsuit petitions and settlement thereof: “Within 10 days from the day on which the returned petitions are received, the petitioners may file their complaints, or the Procuracies may file recommendations to the Courts which have returned the lawsuit petitions” and “Under documents and evidence related to the return of lawsuit petitions, opinions of representatives of Procuracies and involved parties filing complaints at the meetings, the Judge shall make one of the following decisions: b) To receive back the lawsuit petitions and enclosed documents as well as evidence to process the lawsuits.”

In the light of the above, the petitioner can submit a Complaint Letter to the Court to request the settlement when have grounds proving that the Judge’s decision to return the lawsuit petition is contrary to the regulations of law. The Judge’s return of the lawsuit petition, which is based on the reason that the petitioner fails to submit additional documents and evidence at the request of the Judge though he/she has provided evidence proving that his/her legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon, is not under the law. Accordingly, the petitioner has the right to request the Court to receive back the lawsuit petition and enclosed documents and evidence for acceptance of the lawsuit.

With the above legal analysis and legal share of the solution to the Judge’s return of the lawsuit petition due to the reason that the petitioner fails to provide additional documents and evidence, we hope this article is useful to you in the process of filing a civil lawsuit at the Court.

Best regards.

TNTP & Associates International Law Firm