RANDOMLY ASSIGNING JUDGES TO ENSURE OBJECTIVITY AND FAIRNESS OF THE LITIGATION

In order to ensure objectivity and fairness of the litigation, one of the fundamental procedural rules is to guarantee the impartiality of the competent proceeding officers. The Civil Procedure Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Law on Administrative Procedure all recognize this rule. On that basis, on December 15, 2022, The Supreme People's Court ("SPC") issued Circular No. 01/2022/TT-TANDTC ("Circular 01") stipulating the assignment of judges for settlement or adjudication of lawsuits and matters under the court's jurisdiction.

According to Circular 01, SPC provides specific guidance on the criteria, principles, and methods related to the assignment of judges for the settlement or adjudication of lawsuits and matters (hereinafter referred to as "cases") in people's courts and military courts nationwide to ensure the above-mentioned principle. The details are as follows:

1. Basically, the assignment of judges must follow a random manner, except when the court undertaking the adjudication of a case is appointed:

1. Assign to settle cases under first-instance and appellate procedures in case of complex criminal cases related to anti-corruption; and cases related to the protection of public interests, state interests, politics, foreign affairs and security policy, religion, ethnicity, personnel and intellectuals which is attracting special attention from the public.
2. Assign judges to be members of the First Instance and Appellate Tribunals.
3. Assign judges to handle an application for cassation or reopening for cases in which the duration for appeal pursuant to the procedure of cassation or reopening is less than 01 month as prescribed by law or other special cases as decided by the Chief Justice of the Court.
4. Assign to settle cases regarding the change of judges.

2. The priority criteria when randomly assigning judges for settlement of cases follows the order below (the Chief Justice shall consider in order until the list of judges and the list of cases are exhausted):

1. Priority based on the number of cases assigned: the judge taking charge of a smaller number of cases will be assigned first.
2. Priority based on the number of suspended cases: the judge having a greater number of suspended cases will be assigned first.
3. Priority based on the number of overdue cases: the judge having a smaller number of overdue cases shall be assigned first.
4. Priority based on the number of cases corrected or canceled subjectively within 1 year from the date of assignment: the judge having a smaller number of cases corrected or canceled will be assigned first.
5. Priority based on alphabetical order: the judge with the first letter in their first name comes first in the Vietnamese alphabet will be assigned first.
6. If the judge is assigned to cases in which that judge must refuse to proceed or change in accordance with the procedural law, the next case in the list of cases must be assigned to that judge.

3. Aiming at developing and applying software to randomly assign cases for settlement in an automatic manner using electronic devices for uniform application among the Courts.

Circular 01 took effect on February 01, 2023.