The practice of sanctioning administrative violations in legal proceedings shows there is an increase in acts of obstructing legal proceedings, which is the main reason causing a lot of difficulty for the case resolving process. Moreover, this is also negatively affecting the quality of the case settlement of competent agencies and challenging the sanctity of the judiciary’s jurisdiction. To deterring and mitigating illegal acts and legal proceedings obstructing act, on 18 August 2022, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly issued Ordinance No. /2022/UBTVQH15 on Sanctions of administrative violations for acts of obstructing legal proceedings (“Ordinance 02”) takes effect from 1 September 2022. According to this Ordinance, the act of recording audio or video at the court hearing without the consent of the presiding judge or procedure participants is considered a violation of the court's rules and may be subject to administrative sanctions.

Administrative sanctions for illegal audio and video recording at court hearing

According to Ordinance 02’s regulations, the presiding judge of the court hearing is empowered to impose administrative sanctions for acts of failing to comply with the direction of the presiding judge in terms of audio and video recording of the court hearing or the jury panel without the consent of the presiding judge. Moreover, the audio and video recording of the participants in the court hearing without their consent is also considered an illegal act. The administrative sanction for these acts is from VND 7,000,000 to VND 15,000,000.

Additional penalties and remedies

Besides the above sanctions, the act of illegally audio and video recording at the court hearing may be subject to additional penalties. Specifically, the person or organization that commits the illegal act will be confiscated the exhibits and means of violation. In addition, Ordinance 02 also stipulates remedies for this act by forcing the withdrawal and return of documents, audio and video documents that individuals or organizations have obtained by perform illegal acts for competent state agencies.