Ms. Truong My Lan applied for exemption and reduction of nearly 674 billion VND in civil court fees, lawyer spoke out

After the first-instance verdict, in addition to filing an appeal against the entire judgment, Ms. Truong My Lan also applied for exemption of more than 673 billion VND in court fees. Recently, the lawyer has spoken out more clearly on this issue.

On November 4, the Ho Chi Minh City High Court will consider appealing the judgment of Ms. Truong My Lan for embezzlement causing damage of VND 673,000 billion to SCB Bank (phase one of the Van Thinh Phat case).

In April, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Ms. Truong My Lan to a prison sentence for violating regulations on lending in the operation of credit institutions, giving bribes and embezzlement of assets.

In addition to the above sentence, the first-instance court forced the defendant Truong My Lan to reimburse SCB the remaining balance of 1,243 loans as of October 17, 2022 (the prosecution of the case), equivalent to an amount of VND 673,849 billion.

The court decided to continue to distraint and temporarily seize real estate, shares, land use right certificates, savings books, and other assets of companies under Van Thinh Phat Group owned or assigned to individuals in the names of households, of the defendants and other related persons to ensure the enforcement of the corresponding judgment obligations.

In addition, the court declared that it would continue to distrain a series of assets related to the case as well as propose to clarify many other contents.

In addition, the first-instance judgment forced the defendants to each bear 200,000 VND in first-instance criminal court costs. Particularly, the defendant Truong My Lan had to bear nearly 674 billion VND in first-instance civil court costs.

After the above ruling, Ms. Lan appealed the entire first-instance judgment and applied for exemption from court fees.

So according to the records, is Truong My Lan in the case of court fee exemption or reduction?

According to Thanh Nien, lawyer Ha Huy Phong, Director of Inteco Law Firm, based on Article 12 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14, the cases that are exempt from paying court fee advances and court fees include:

- The employee initiates a lawsuit to claim wages, job loss allowances, severance allowances, social insurance, compensation for occupational accidents and occupational diseases; settle issues of compensation for damages or due to illegal dismissal or termination of labor contracts.

- The person requesting alimony, applying for identification of the father or mother of the minor child or the adult child who has lost civil act capacity.

- Complainants who make administrative decisions or administrative acts in the application or implementation of administrative handling measures for education in communes, wards or townships.

- Claimants for life, health, honor, dignity and reputation.

-Children; individuals belonging to poor and near-poor households; the elderly; people with disabilities; people with meritorious services to the revolution; ethnic minorities in communes with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions; relatives of martyrs shall be granted martyrs' family certificates by competent state agencies.

Considering the case of Ms. Truong My Lan, according to the lawyer, in the above points, there is only one case that can be applied to Ms. Lan is the elderly.

According to Article 2 of the Law on the Elderly 2009, the elderly are Vietnamese citizens aged full 60 years or older. In the case of Truong My Lan, Ms. Lan was born in 1956 (68 years old), so she is exempt from court fees as prescribed.

However, according to the provisions of Article 15 on the competence to exempt and reduce court fees, the timeline for considering the request for exemption or reduction of court fees is before the first-instance and appellate court sessions. At the trial, the Judicial Council will issue a decision on the exemption and reduction of court fees.

According to lawyer Phong, in addition to considering the factors of conviction, framing in the criminal part, and compensation for damages in the civil part, the Judicial Council also decides on the court costs. Therefore, if the request for exemption or reduction of court fees is made after the judgment has been pronounced, there will be no basis for consideration. If the request for exemption or reduction of court fees is duly paid to the court before the time of the hearing, it can be considered and accepted.

Ms. Truong My Lan did not accept the death sentence, appealed to the end, and sent a petition from the prison Phúc Sen16:56:29 29/04/2024After being sentenced to death, Ms. Truong My Lan did not accept the entire sentence, President Van Thinh Phat sent a final appeal, sent from the detention center to the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, hoping to have the crime retried.