What are the Benefits of Mediation Services in
Vietnam?
The process of integrating with market economy is developing
strongly, which creates many opportunities for businesses to extend their
operation and cooperate with international companies. As a result, dispute
arising is inevitable. To coincide with benefits, especially information
confidentiality under parties’ agreement, commercial mediation is one of the
commercial alternative dispute resolution which is more and more popular.
Commercial mediation is a dispute resolution negotiated by parties
and the mediator is the third party as an intermediary to support parties to
resolve dispute under the regulations of Decree 22/2017/ND-CP on February 24th,
2017. Following the regulations, commercial mediation can be negotiated by
parties before, after or at any time of dispute resolution process. By Decree
22, commercial mediation is applied in cases of a dispute between parties with
at least one party practicing commercial activities or another dispute under
the laws can be resolved by the commercial mediation. Moreover, participating
in commercial mediation is voluntary and all the information of mediation shall
be kept secret under parties’ agreement, provided that agreement’s content is
legal.
Commercial mediation is becoming a popular dispute resolution
because of its simple and flexible procedure, economical cost for parties.
Parties have chance to choose a suitable procedure and avoid complicated legal
procedure. Under the law on parties’ self-determination to choose any mediator
and a place to proceed procedures, which helps parties select a mediator with
professional skills on dispute resolution. Furthermore, parties could reach an
agreement with good will and cooperating spirit. Both still continue to develop
and protect business relationship because of parties’ benefits. Under the
Decree, all the information involving dispute must be kept secret, unless
parties have written agreement or current law has other regulations.
Under the law, parties are entitled to choose a mediator to
resolve dispute. According to Decree 22/2017/ND-CP, commercial mediators
include commercial case mediators and mediators from commercial mediation
institutions selected by the parties or appointed by a commercial mediation
institution at the request of disputing parties to support them to resolve
dispute pursuant to regulations of this Decree. A person who wants to become a
mediator must qualify conditions of Article 7 of Decree 22. Apart from general
moral standards following Law on Civil, mediators must have a university or
higher qualification and at least two years of working experience in their
educated discipline, also mediation skills as well as legal understanding,
knowledge of business and commercial practice. Instead of bringing the case to
court, which parties cannot predict the result, even inextricable, choosing a
mediator who is knowledgeable and experienced could help parties resolve
dispute smoothly.
Pursuant to Civil Procedure Code 2015, time for resolving
commercial disputes belonging to the jurisdiction of the Court could take
years. Meanwhile, choosing mediation, parties take less time to resolve
dispute. Moreover, dispute is absolutely resolved by parties’ agreement because
in the mediating procedure, with mediator’s support, parties can show their
decision on dispute resolution. Then, they can save significant cost.
Another benefit
of dispute resolution is that parties decide themselves how to
resolve dispute and can know the result. This is a prominent advantage of
dispute resolution compared with other resolutions, which have unpredictable
result. Importantly, mediation is a private procedure so that parties’ name is
not revealed publicly during mediating procedure, decrease hazards to parties’
business reputation.
According to Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World
Bank Group, Alternative Dispute Resolution Center Manual: A Guide for
Practitioners on Establishing and Managing ADR Centers, mediating resolution
has brought many benefits. For individual benefits, mediation reduces the need
for enforcement proceedings to ensure one party complies with an agreement,
since the parties enter into their settlement agreements consensually. For
private sector benefits, mediation enhances private sector development by
creating a better environment for business. It lowers the direct and indirect
costs that businesses incur in enforcing contracts and resolving disputes.
Contact Us for ADR & Mediation
Services in Vietnam provided
by qualified mediators and lawyers, supported by field experts. Via email
ant@antlawyers.vn, office tel +84 28 730 86 529
