VERIFYING THE DEFENDANT’S ADDRESS WHEN INITIATING A LAWSUIT AT A COURT (PART I)
Currently, in the process of initiating a civil lawsuit, a petitioner often faces difficulties when the Court requests the verification of the defendant’s address and only accepts the lawsuit when the petition has verified the defendant’s address. Thus, what are cases in that the petitioner has to verify the defendant’s address? How is the defendant’s address verified? Will the Court return the lawsuit petition if the petitioner is unable to verify the defendant’s address? In this article, we will hereby mention and clarify the above issues for readers.
1. What are cases in that the petitioner has to verify the defendant’s address?
Under Article 189.4.e of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, the main contents that must be stated in the lawsuit petition include: Name, place of residence, and work of the defendant (applicable to individuals) or head office of the defendant (applicable to agencies/organizations). This regulation is detailed in Article 5 of Resolution No. 04/2017/NQ-HDTP, in which the petitioner needs to provide the correct address of the defendant under the law and have grounds to prove that address. If the place of residence, place of work, or head office of the defendant is indefinite, the lawsuit petition must specify the last place of residence, place of work, or head office of the defendant which the petitioner knows closest up to the time of initiating the lawsuit and are granted or certified by a competent authority or an organization or are proved by other grounds.
Therefore, the petitioner needs to write the correct address of the defendant and have grounds to prove that address, for example, the address stated in the defendant’s ID, Passport, Enterprise Registration Certificate of the defendant… However, the defendant’s address provided by the petitioner must be certified by a competent authority or an organization in some cases. At that time, the Court will request the petitioner to verify that address.
2. What are the steps the petitioner needs to take when the Court requests to verify the defendant’s address?
The petitioner can verify the defendant’s address at the Police agency of the commune/ward where the defendant resides or the defendant’s head office is located, with the following steps:
Step 1: The petitioner needs to prepare (i) Notice of addition of the lawsuit petition issued by the Court; and (ii) Request Letter to the Police agency for verification of the defendant’s residence address or head office (“Request Letter“).
Step 2: The petitioner needs to directly submit the prepared documents to the Police agency to request it to certify by writing and signing the Request Letter for submission to the Court. If the Police agency agrees with the Request Letter, the police officer in charge will certify, sign and seal it.
Step 3: The petitioner submits the Request Letter with the certification of the Police agency to the Court. The Court will issue a Notice of Lawsuit Acceptance under the Request Letter.
Note: However, in reality when taking Step 2, there is a low possibility that the Police agency agrees to certify the defendant’s address since it can just agree to provide and verify the defendant’s residence address or head office when assigned or appointed in writing by a competent Court.
Accordingly, if the Police agency refuses to certify the defendant’s address, the petitioner can request the court to assist in requesting the competent Police agency to verify the defendant’s address under Article 106 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code. In particular, the petitioner can submit a Request Letter to the Court for assistance in collecting evidence, in which: (i) explaining the reason why the defendant’s address cannot be verified, (ii) requesting the Court to assist in the verification, and (iii) attaching evidence proving that the petitioner has requested Police agency for the verification without success (if any).
After providing the above documents, the Court can accept to request the competent Police agency to certify the defendant’s address or conduct to certify the defendant’s address by itself. However, it is still possible for the Court to issue a Notice to return the petition due to the reason that the petition has been not amended or supplemented at the request of the Judge under Article 192.1.e of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code. In this case, the petitioner can complain against the Notice to return the petition under Article 194.1 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code.
In light of the above, there are many cases in that the petitioner faces difficulties in the verification of the defendant’s address at the request of the Court. We hope this article with our practical experiences will help you in the procedure of verifying the defendant’s address when filing a lawsuit to protect your legitimate rights and interests.
Best regards.
TNTP & Associates International Law Firm
