Electronic Litigation Procedures at Court – New Provisions and Key Points for Litigants to Note

Against a backdrop of digital transformation taking place vigorously across every field of economic and social life, judicial activity is also gradually transforming itself to meet the requirements of reform, modernization, and improved service to citizens and enterprises.

In response to these requirements, on 16 January 2026, the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court issued Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP, providing for electronic litigation procedures at Court (effective from 1 March 2026). This is the first legal instrument to provide relatively comprehensive rules on the order and methods for carrying out litigation activities in an electronic environment – from the registration and use of electronic accounts, the filing of statements of claim, and the submission of documents and evidence, to the sending and receiving of procedural documents and the performance of other procedural transactions through the Court’s Information System.

I. New provisions on electronic litigation procedures at Court

1. Completing the legal basis for carrying out litigation procedures in an electronic environment

Practical experience in dispute resolution shows that, although many transactions are now conducted entirely in a digital environment, once a dispute arises, the parties concerned are often still required to print electronic documents into a paper dossier for submission to the Court; the exchange of procedural documents is mainly carried out in person or through postal services; and many procedures remain dependent on traditional administrative methods. This gap between the digitalization of business activity and the manner in which litigation is conducted has given rise to considerable difficulties, prolonging the time needed to resolve cases and increasing the costs borne by litigants.

Against this background, the issuance of Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP by the Judicial Council of the Supreme People’s Court is intended not merely to add a new guiding instrument, but also to contribute to completing the legal corridor for the process of digital transformation in judicial activity. For the first time, the entire process for carrying out procedural transactions in an electronic environment has been provided for in relatively complete terms – from the registration of electronic accounts and authentication of the parties concerned, to the sending and receiving of procedural documents, the submission of documents and evidence, and the determination of the time at which an electronic transaction arises and of the responsibilities of the parties participating in proceedings.

From a legislative perspective, this is an important step. Whereas the 2023 Law on Electronic Transactions affirmed that electronic data is not denied legal validity merely because it is expressed in electronic form, Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP has given concrete effect to this principle in the field of litigation, creating a mechanism by which electronic data may be received, exchanged, and used in the course of resolving a case at Court. In other words, the Resolution has helped connect the law on electronic transactions with the law on civil procedure, ensuring the consistency of the legal system in the context of digital transformation.

2. New points in carrying out litigation procedures in an electronic environment

Building on this legal corridor, Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP has significantly expanded the scope of litigation activities that may be carried out through the Court’s Information System. Compared with traditional methods, this represents not merely a change in the form of transactions, but a change in the way the entire litigation process is organized and managed.

One of the most notable new points is that a litigant may use an electronic account to carry out numerous transactions with the Court, such as filing a statement of claim or a petition, sending documents and evidence, receiving procedural documents, and exercising other rights and performing other obligations as provided by law. Concentrating these activities on a single, unified electronic system helps significantly reduce dossier-processing time, limit travel costs, and enhance transparency in the case-resolution process.

The electronic account, however, is not merely a tool that facilitates transactions. In the electronic litigation environment, the electronic account also serves as the basis for identifying the party carrying out a transaction, recording the time at which a transaction arises, and establishing the legal responsibility of the litigant concerned. Accordingly, the management, use, and security of the electronic account should be regarded as a legal obligation, particularly for agencies, organizations, and enterprises in which multiple individuals jointly handle matters.

A new point of considerable practical significance is the mechanism for submitting documents and evidence by electronic means. In today’s disputes, evidence is no longer confined to paper contracts or traditional vouchers, but is increasingly generated from emails, system data, transaction logs, digital signatures, text messages, or data stored on cloud-computing platforms. The law’s provision allowing such data to be submitted through the Court’s Information System creates more favourable conditions for litigants, while also accurately reflecting the reality of modern transactions.

That said, a clear distinction must be drawn between the legal validity of electronic data and its probative value. The law’s recognition of electronic data does not mean that all electronic data automatically becomes evidence with probative value. Under the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, evidence must satisfy requirements of lawfulness, relevance, and probative value in relation to the case. Accordingly, in respect of electronic data, the Court must still consider its origin, integrity, capacity for authentication, and connection to the facts requiring proof, before assessing the value of the evidence.

Practical experience shows that not a few enterprises retain only a PDF file or a printed copy of an email, without preserving the original data, the sending/receiving log, or related technical information. Where a dispute arises and the other party denies the content of the transaction, proving the authenticity of the document can be difficult. For this reason, alongside the expanded scope for using electronic data in litigation, the requirements for data governance and retention have become more important than ever.

In addition, determining the time of sending and the time of receipt of electronic data also warrants attention. This is an important basis for determining whether a litigant has exercised a right or performed an obligation within the prescribed time limit. In civil proceedings, many procedural rights – such as the right to appeal, to lodge a complaint, to submit evidence, or to comply with a Court’s request – are all subject to strict time limits. The law’s clear provision of a mechanism for determining the time of sending and receipt of electronic data therefore not only helps limit procedural disputes, but also ensures transparency and legal certainty for the parties to the proceedings.

II. Key points for litigants to note

The fact that Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP permits many litigation activities to be carried out in an electronic environment does not mean that litigants need only change the method by which they send and receive dossiers. In practice, electronic litigation gives rise to entirely new requirements concerning information governance, data management, and the organization of the exercise of procedural rights and performance of procedural obligations. Where a litigant fails to adapt in a timely manner, the benefits offered by the electronic method of litigation may be undermined by errors arising from its very use.

1. Proactively adapting to the electronic litigation method

One of the most significant changes brought about by electronic litigation is the shift from a mechanism of direct, in-person transactions to a mechanism of transactions carried out through the Court’s Information System. This requires litigants to change working habits that, in many cases, have persisted for years.

Previously, many litigants tended to wait to receive a paper document or direct notice from the Court before exercising their procedural rights and obligations. Once registered to participate in proceedings by electronic means, however, it becomes the litigant’s own responsibility to regularly check their electronic account, monitor notices from the Court, and respond promptly to procedural requests. Failing to check the account over an extended period, or failing to keep up with notices from the system, may result in missing the deadline for exercising a procedural right, thereby directly affecting the litigant’s own lawful rights and interests.

For enterprises, the management of electronic accounts warrants even greater attention, since, in practice, many enterprises assign the use or management of accounts serving legal-related activities to multiple individuals. Absent a clear mechanism for allocating access rights, a change of personnel or an incomplete handover of duties may result in Court notices being overlooked, giving rise to unnecessary risks in the course of resolving a case.

An enterprise should issue an internal procedure for managing electronic litigation accounts, clearly specifying the person responsible for monitoring the account, the mechanism for allocating access rights, the process for handling notices received from the Court, and the responsibility for retaining the entire history of electronic transactions. This is a simple, yet significant, measure for limiting procedural errors.

2. Managing electronic data and controlling procedural time limits

One of the most impactful aspects of electronic litigation is that electronic data is increasingly becoming the primary source of evidence in civil, business, and commercial cases. This means that the method by which individuals and enterprises manage evidence must also change accordingly.

Drawing on practical advisory and dispute-resolution experience, it can be observed that many enterprises still maintain the habit of retaining only a PDF file or printed copy of a contract, email, or text message, without paying attention to preserving the original data or related technical information. Meanwhile, once a dispute arises, the Court may consider numerous factors in assessing the probative value of electronic data, such as its origin, the integrity of the data, its retrievability, and information concerning the time of creation or the process of transmission of the data. Where such data is no longer fully retained, proving the case will encounter considerable difficulty, particularly where the other party denies the transaction or claims that the data has been altered.

Enterprises should therefore not focus solely on storing documents in electronic form, but should build a data-governance system capable of ensuring integrity, retrievability, and the ability to cross-check data when a dispute arises. Retaining transaction logs, server data, digital-signature authentication information, or other technical information may, in many cases, be of value no less than the content of the electronic document itself.

Alongside data management, controlling procedural time limits also requires particular attention. Where procedural documents are sent through the Court’s Information System, determining the time of sending and the time of receipt of electronic data will serve as the basis for calculating many important procedural time limits – such as the time limit for amending or supplementing a statement of claim, for submitting evidence, for appealing, for lodging a complaint, or for complying with other requests of the Court. Litigants should therefore proactively retain confirmation notices of electronic transactions, while establishing a mechanism for tracking important time limits so as to avoid missing a deadline prescribed by law.

3. Preparing for the digital litigation model

The development of electronic litigation shows that an enterprise’s legal governance activities must also be transformed in a digitalized direction. Whereas, previously, dossier preparation was typically carried out only once a dispute had already arisen, in a digital environment, the management of data and evidence must be carried out from the very time a transaction is entered into and performed.

From a risk-management perspective, an enterprise should establish a unified process for storing electronic data, standardize the use of digital signatures, allocate rights to manage electronic accounts, and establish a mechanism for periodic data backup. At the same time, the legal, information-technology, and other specialized departments need to coordinate closely to ensure that data serving production and business activities can also be used as evidence when a dispute arises.

It can thus be seen that electronic litigation is not merely a change in the method of transacting between the Court and litigants, but also gives rise to new requirements for an enterprise’s legal governance. In a context where data has become an important asset and a common source of evidence in adjudicative activity, an enterprise with a more complete data-governance system will be at a greater advantage in proving its lawful rights and interests before the Court.

Conclusion

The promulgation of Resolution No. 01/2026/NQ-HĐTP marks an important step forward in completing the legal framework on electronic litigation procedures in Vietnam. Not only does it create a unified legal basis for the application of technology in the operation of the Courts, the Resolution also contributes to realizing the policy of digital transformation in the judicial field, moving towards building a modern, transparent judiciary centred on serving citizens and enterprises.

It must also be recognized, however, that digital transformation in litigation activity is not simply a matter of replacing paper dossiers with electronic dossiers, or converting in-person transactions into online transactions. The core value of the electronic litigation model lies in changing the method of organizing, managing, and exploiting information throughout the entire case-resolution process. As electronic data increasingly becomes a common source of evidence, the requirements for data governance, ensuring the integrity of information, and controlling electronic transactions will become an inseparable part of legal governance activity.

For individuals, proactively learning about and complying with the new provisions will help ensure the full exercise of procedural rights and performance of procedural obligations, while limiting risks arising from the use of electronic transaction methods. For enterprises, building a data-management mechanism, standardizing the process for retaining electronic evidence, controlling the use of electronic accounts, and enhancing the capacity of the legal department are not only necessary to meet the requirements of procedural law, but are also an effective risk-management solution in the context of digital transformation taking place across every field of business activity.

It may be predicted that, alongside the ongoing improvement of the law on electronic transactions, electronic data, and digital justice, the scope of application of electronic litigation will continue to expand in the time ahead. Digital transformation in judicial activity is an irreversible trend. In this context, the advantage held by each individual or enterprise in the course of dispute resolution will depend not only on legal argumentation or litigation skill, but also on the capacity to manage data and evidence and to control procedural time limits, well before a dispute even arises. Proactive preparation for the digital litigation model is therefore no longer merely a recommended option, but has become an essential requirement of legal governance capacity for individuals, enterprises, and legal practitioners in the era of digital justice.

Should you require in-depth legal advice, please kindly contact:

Consulting – Litigation Lawyer: Nguyen Thi Hoa

• – Email: info@bizlawyer.vn
• – Tel: 086.885.1900

Respectfully./.