A new regulation barring electronic devices has lawyers in Việt Nam doing computations by hand and fighting to bring their laptops through security.
The Latest: Circular No. 12, issued by the Supreme People’s Court, officially took effect on Aug. 1, 2026, barring lawyers and all court participants from bringing electronic devices into courtrooms or recording audio or video unless permitted by the presiding judge.
- The circular does not specify how permission should be granted or in what cases electronic devices may be used, resulting in lawyers being forced to calculate complex compensation figures entirely by hand.
The Circular in Effect: On Aug. 11, Atty. Lê Ngọc Lam Điền of Li & Associates Law Office in Hồ Chí Minh City detailed her experience on Facebook, arguing a case at the Hồ Chí Minh City People’s Court on Aug. 10.
- Điền stated that all lawyers and courtroom attendees were required to leave all electronic devices “outside the courtroom.”
- She subsequently asked “to use a phone to look up case files and documents,” but the judge refused.
She recounted the exchange as follows:
“Atty. Điền: Your Honor, I ask for permission to use my phone to look up documents. I commit not to use it to record audio or video.
Judge: No. The law already says so. You cannot use it. You know the law.
Atty. Điền: Circular 12 also clearly says permission may be requested from the trial panel.
Judge, interrupting: Don’t ask me. If I allow you, do I have to allow everyone else?
Atty. Điền: We commit not to record audio or video.
Judge: No. In general, I won’t allow it. I’m afraid of filming and other things, afraid of many things…”
According to Atty. Điền, after court staff confiscated their devices, she and her colleague had to “strain their eyes calculating interest and compensation… by pen.” In preparation for potential rejections, she had “printed out the entire file and carried it to court.”
- She also noted in her comments: “Lawyers and court attendees at Area 15, Hồ Chí Minh City, are not allowed to bring water into court. Let me repeat: not into the courtroom, but through the gate.”
Another Incident: A similar incident occurred with Atty. Nguyễn Thu Hương of I&We Law Firm.
- Hương told Luật Khoa that security guards at the Cần Thơ City People’s Court reminded participants on Aug. 4 that electronic devices could not be used during the hearing.
- Because the court had not arranged a designated storage area, participants had to hold the devices themselves.
- The hearing Hương attended was postponed due to the absence of ten of the 30 total victims, and at the request of the procuracy.
- As a result, Hương does not know if her formal request to use a laptop would have been approved.
Before the hearing, Hương had copied nearly 2,000 pages of case materials, selecting the most important documents to print.
- She added that the lawyers present generally complied and prepared in similar ways.
- She also observed that five lawyers sat at a single table covered entirely in physical documents—a scene she described as rarely seen before.
Hương warned that if judges consistently deny requests to use devices without legitimate reasons, the restriction on accessing and searching documents will impede defense work.
- She noted that widespread implementation of this strict interpretation could spark a wave of opposition among lawyers.
The Background: Since mid-July, Circular No. 12 has triggered a wave of opposition among legal professionals.
- Critics argue that the regulation affects the ability of lawyers to practice, creates a permission-based mechanism, harms the rights of litigants, and runs counter to the government’s push to digitize the courts.
Why It Matters: The enforcement of Circular No. 12 contradicts the government’s push to digitize the judicial system.
- On Aug. 11, the same day Điền shared her experience, Supreme People’s Court Chief Justice Nguyễn Văn Quảng responded to voter petitions by stating that rolling out “electronic courts” and “digital courts” nationwide remains an important goal for the judiciary in the coming period.
Hoàng Nam wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on August 14, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
