Under the regulation of the Civil Proceedings Law, the spouses in general, and each of the spouses in particular have the right to appeal against a first instance judgement which has not yet come to effect within the time limit as prescribed by law in order to petition the appellate Court to resolve the case in accordance with the appellate proceedings. A spouse is entitled to an appeal in full or in parts against a first instance judgement of divorce case. The Civil Proceedings Law stipulates that the time limit for lodging an appeal against a first instance judgement is 15 days as of the date of pronouncement of the judgement. Therefore, if a spouse disagrees with a first instance judgement, he or she is entitled to appeal against the judgement within 15 days following the date of pronouncement of the first instance judgement. If exceeding that time limit, the Court of first instance shall deny the appeal petition. For example: Mr. A and Ms. B’s divorce was pronounced by the Court of first instance under its judgement on 02 January 2019. In case Mr. A and/or Ms. B wishes to appeal that judgement then the appeal petition shall be filed before or by 17 January 2019 at the latest. If the petition is submitted from 18 January 2019, the appeal shall be considered overdue and not accepted by the Court of first instance.
In case the spouse is absent from the trial or is absent upon rendering of a judgement without a legitimate reason, the time limit for lodging an appeal shall be 15 days, starting from the date on which the spouse receives the judgement or the day on which the judgement is posted. In addition, if the spouse was present at the trial but is absent upon rendering a judgement without a legitimate reason, the time limit for lodging an appeal shall be calculated from the date of pronouncement of the judgement. Where the appeal petition is communicated through postal services, the date of appeal shall be determined on the basis of the date indicated on the stamp postmark on the envelope affixed by the postal service provider.
Within the time limit legally allocated to appeal against a
first instance judgement, all spouses or a spouse may not have enough time to find himself or herself in favourable conditions to implement the right to an appeal. If a spouse is too late to apply for an appeal due to legitimate reasons, such as illness, bad roads, obstacles or due to an event of force
majeure, a spouse may be considered for
the out-of-time appeal petition by the Council consisting of three Judges[2]. In this case, the spouse submitting the out of time appeal petition shall
send that petition along with the explanatory statement of the appellant exposing the reasons for lodging
the appeal petition after the allocated
time and data and evidence (if any) to the first instance Court. Within
10 days, from the date of receipt of the out of time appeal petition, attached data
and evidence, a council considering the above out of time appeal petition shall
consider the data, evidence and the opinion of the spouse who is applying for such appeal and that of the
Procuracy’s representative in order to make the decision to accept or refuse the appeal on a
majority basis and specify the reason for its acceptance or refusal in the
decision.
[1] Điều 275 Bộ luật Tố tụng dân sự 2015.
[2] Article 275 of the Civil Proceedings Code 2015.
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