Legal Services for Foreigners in Vietnam – Criminal Defence, Family & Divorce, Personal Injury

UniLaw acts for individuals in Vietnam — foreign residents, workers, investors’ families and visitors — in three areas where a person, not a company, is the client: criminal defence, family and divorce, and personal injury compensation. All three are decided by Vietnamese law and by Vietnamese courts, whatever the client’s nationality. Article 5 of the Penal Code applies to every offence committed on Vietnamese territory; Articles 469 and 470 of the Civil Procedure Code give Vietnamese courts jurisdiction over civil and family matters with a foreign element; and from 1 July 2025, Law No. 85/2025/QH15 moved first-instance civil and family cases to the regional People’s Court. The practical consequence is simple: advice built on the law of the client’s home country is the most common reason a matter here goes wrong.

Who this is for

Three situations bring individuals to us. Someone has been stopped, held or charged and the family does not know when a lawyer may enter the file. A marriage is ending and one spouse is foreign, or the assets or the children are in two countries. Or someone has been injured — a road accident, an accident at work, a fall on someone else’s premises, treatment that went wrong — and needs to know what Vietnamese law actually allows them to claim, and from whom. This page sets out the law that governs each, and the articles on this site that go into detail.

Criminal defence in Vietnam

The two questions asked first are when a lawyer can be present and what the file has to prove. Under Article 74 of the Criminal Procedure Code a defender takes part from the moment charges are laid — and where the person is arrested or held, from the moment they arrive at the investigating body’s premises or the custody decision is issued. Article 73 sets out what the defender may do, including being present when statements are taken and during interrogation; Article 78 requires registration in every case.

Two provisions matter more than any argument at trial. Article 13 states the presumption of innocence and requires a conclusion of not guilty where the grounds for accusation cannot be established through the Code’s procedure. Article 98 provides that an admission by the accused is evidence only if it is consistent with the rest of the file, and may never be the sole basis for a conviction — which is the answer to the most common fear a family arrives with. Article 76 makes the appointment of a defender mandatory where the charge carries a maximum of 20 years, life imprisonment or death, or where the accused has a physical or mental impairment or is under 18. Article 29 provides that proceedings are in Vietnamese and that an interpreter must be provided, so every statement in the file exists in a Vietnamese version that has to be checked against what was actually said.

Where a person under 18 is accused, a separate statute now governs the whole matter: the Law on Juvenile Justice No. 59/2024/QH15, in force from 1 January 2026, which puts twelve diversion measures ahead of punishment and limits a minor to four possible penalties.

Family and divorce in Vietnam

The Law on Marriage and Family No. 52/2014/QH13 governs marriage, divorce, children and matrimonial property. Two beliefs foreign clients arrive with are both wrong, and both are expensive.

The first is that a mother automatically keeps a child under 36 months. Article 81(3) does provide that a child under 36 months is given to the mother to raise directly, but subject to the exceptions in the same clause — and Article 81(2) requires the wishes of a child aged 7 or over to be considered. The second is that property is split down the middle. Article 59(2) requires the court to weigh four factors, and expressly provides that work in the household counts as income-earning work; the outcome is a reasoned division, not an arithmetic one.

Beyond the split itself: Article 88 sets the 300-day presumption of paternity; Articles 55 and 56 separate divorce by consent from divorce on one spouse’s petition; Articles 51(2) and (3) govern who may petition; and Articles 121 to 129 deal with marriage and family relations involving a foreign element. Since 1 July 2025 a first-instance family case is heard by the regional People’s Court, provincial courts keeping appeal, cassation and review — a change worth confirming before any filing, because it decides where the papers go.

Personal injury and compensation in Vietnam

Compensation for injury is in the Civil Code No. 91/2015/QH13. Article 584 sets the grounds for liability; Article 585 the principles, including clause 4, under which a claimant is not compensated for the part of the loss caused by their own fault. Article 590 lists what may be claimed for injury to health, with compensation for mental suffering capped at 50 times the base salary where the parties do not agree; Article 591 covers funeral costs, maintenance for dependants and mental suffering on death, capped at 100 times the base salary. Article 588 gives a limitation period of three years, which is the deadline most claims are lost to.

Article 601 is the provision that decides road and machinery cases: the possessor or user of a source of extreme danger — a motor vehicle among them — must compensate even where they are not at fault, subject to the exceptions in that article. Resolution No. 02/2022/NQ-HDTP of 6 September 2022 fills in the working detail, including the allowance for recuperation measured as one day of the regional minimum wage, with a day’s wage calculated as the monthly figure divided by 26. For treatment that went wrong, Article 103 of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 requires professional indemnity insurance that covers the costs of the complaint itself.

Three things individual clients get wrong

1. Waiting. In a criminal file the decisions that set the outcome — how the charge is characterised, what the first statement says, whether detention is justified — are taken in the first weeks. In an injury claim the three-year limit in Article 588 runs from the loss, not from when the claimant feels ready.
2. Assuming home-country doctrine applies. Concepts that do not exist in Vietnamese law — a federal court, a jury, punitive damages, a fixed 50/50 split, a clean-break order — cannot be argued for here, and time spent pursuing them is time lost.
3. Treating the Vietnamese text as a formality. Proceedings are in Vietnamese. The version of your statement that the court reads is the Vietnamese one.

What we do, and what stays with you

We register as defender and attend interrogation; we draft and file the petition, the statement of claim or the response; we assemble the evidence the specific article requires — the injury-assessment percentage, the valuation, the marriage and civil-status records, the medical file; we appear at first instance and on appeal; and we tell you which of the outcomes you are hoping for the law actually allows. What stays with you: the decision whether to settle, the decision whether to compensate early as mitigation, and any statement you choose to give. We do not advise on accounting or audit work — only on the law that applies to it.

Problems we are asked to fix

A family member held and no one able to say when a lawyer may see them. A statement signed at night without an interpreter. A divorce petition filed at the wrong court since the 1 July 2025 change. A property division argued on a 50/50 assumption. An injury claim brought after the three-year limit, or brought against the driver when Article 601 points at the possessor of the vehicle. A hospital complaint with no medical file behind it.

Talk to us

Tell us what has happened and, if a document exists, send it. We will say which article your matter falls under, what the realistic range of outcomes is, and what has to be done first — before quoting anything. A first assessment of an individual matter is free.

Individual-client research map

Criminal defence

Criminal defence in Vietnam: when a defender can enter and what they may do · theft charges and Article 173 of the Penal Code · drug possession and Article 249 · domestic violence cases under Articles 185, 134 and 140 · juvenile defence under the Law on Juvenile Justice 2024. Category index: Criminal Law.

Family and divorce

Divorce in Vietnam: court, children, property · family law and cross-border family matters · who the court gives a child to · legal separation under Vietnamese family law · agreements made before marriage · inheritance and estates. Category index: Family Law.

Personal injury and compensation

Personal injury in Vietnam: what you can claim and who pays · personal injury and liability claims, step by step · road traffic accident claims and liability without fault · medical negligence: what a patient must prove · injury at work claims · falls and occupier liability · occupational disease claims · cruise ship passenger injury. Category index: Personal Injury Law.

Other legal support for foreigners in Vietnam

Most individual matters sit next to a status question. Where the issue is the right to live and work here — visa, work permit, temporary residence card — see work permit and residence support in Vietnam, and what an immigration lawyer in Vietnam actually does. Where a foreign individual is also an investor or a company officer, see foreign investment counsel in Vietnam and Vietnam corporate lawyers. Where property is the asset in dispute, see Vietnam real estate lawyers.

Legal basis cited above: Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13 as amended (Articles 5, 12, 51, 65, 69, 134, 140, 173, 185, 249); Criminal Procedure Code No. 101/2015/QH13 (Articles 13, 16, 29, 58, 60, 61, 72–78, 98, 155, 183); Law on Juvenile Justice No. 59/2024/QH15 dated 30 November 2024, in force 1 January 2026; Law on Marriage and Family No. 52/2014/QH13 (Articles 51, 55, 56, 59, 81, 88, 121–129); Civil Procedure Code No. 92/2015/QH13 (Articles 469, 470), as amended by Law No. 85/2025/QH15 dated 25 June 2025, in force 1 July 2025; Civil Code No. 91/2015/QH13 (Articles 584, 585, 588, 590, 591, 597, 601); Resolution No. 02/2022/NQ-HDTP dated 6 September 2022; Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 (Article 103).