"If I win, can I make the other side pay my court fees?" and "If I lose, do I have to pay the winner's lawyer bills too?" — nearly every client asks these before filing suit. The short answer to losing lawsuit pay winner court fees Vietnam: losers pay court fees, but not every cost the winner incurred. Distinguishing three kinds of money — court fees, other litigation costs, and lawyer fees — is how you price the real financial risk of a lawsuit in Vietnam.
Table of contents
- 1. The rule: the loser pays court fees
- 2. Three kinds of money to keep apart
- 3. Appellate fees: the appellant takes the risk
- 4. Successful mediation: fifty-fifty
- 5. Enforcement of the fee award
- 6. What if you cannot afford the fees?
- 7. Quick Q&A
- 8. When to work with a lawyer
1. The rule: the loser pays court fees
Under Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14, the basic principle for first-instance civil court fees is that the losing party bears them:
- Plaintiff wins everything: the defendant bears all first-instance court fees; the plaintiff's advance is refunded.
- Plaintiff loses everything: the plaintiff bears the fees; the advance already paid is converted into the fees owed (with a top-up if short).
- Partial win: fees are apportioned to each side's win–loss ratio. Example: the plaintiff claims VND 10 billion, the court awards 6 billion — the plaintiff bears fees on the rejected 4 billion, the defendant on the lost 6 billion.
This has real tactical bite: inflating your claim is not just hard to win — it makes you pay fees on the rejected portion. Sizing the claim realistically is part of litigation strategy.
How fee amounts are actually calculated
Court fees are not a flat percentage. For monetary claims, Resolution 326/2016 applies progressive brackets to the dispute value: the larger the claim, the higher the fee — but each additional bracket is charged at its own rate, similar to progressive income tax. For non-monetary claims (divorce without property division, administrative cases, certain family matters), fixed fees apply instead. Two practical consequences follow. First, the fee base is the value the court accepts or adjudicates, not whatever number the plaintiff wrote in the petition — so the apportionment in partial wins directly tracks the awarded amount. Second, because fees rise with claim value, experienced litigators run the fee math before filing: the expected fee exposure on the "stretch" portion of a claim often outweighs its settlement value, which is precisely why inflated claims get trimmed during pre-filing review.
2. Three kinds of money to keep apart
Court fee advances — paid first, settled later
Before anything else, the plaintiff must pay a court fee advance when filing — a deposit against trial costs, usually 50% of the estimated fees based on the dispute value. At judgment, the advance is settled: the winner's advance is refunded (or offset), the loser pays the balance. Miss the advance deadline and the court may return your petition — the case dies at the gate.
Court fees — the loser pays
These are state revenues for adjudication, calculated on value brackets (for claims with a monetary value) or fixed amounts (for non-monetary claims). This is the only category where the "loser pays" principle applies.
Other litigation costs — the requesting party pays (as a rule)
Expertise fees, asset valuation, witness expenses, judicial entrustment costs. As a rule, the party requesting the procedural step advances and bears the cost — e.g., a plaintiff requesting handwriting expertise advances the expert's fee. The court may reallocate at judgment, but never assume "winning means everything is reimbursed."
Lawyer fees — each side pays its own (as a rule)
The biggest surprise: the loser does not pay the winner's lawyers, because lawyer fees are not court fees. The only exceptions:
- The parties agreed in advance (e.g., the contract makes the breaching party bear the other's legal costs); or
- A specialized law specifically allows recovery of reasonable lawyer fees.
So when drafting contracts, a clause making the breaching party bear "all legal costs of the other party" is valuable armor — without it, even winners pay their own lawyers.
3. Appellate fees: the appellant takes the risk
Appellate civil court fees follow their own logic:
- The appellant pays the appellate fee advance.
- If the appeal succeeds (the first-instance judgment is amended in the appellant's favor): the advance is refunded.
- If the appeal fails: the appellant bears the appellate fees.
Strategic consequence: a hopeless appeal filed "just in case" is a certain way to burn money — appellate fees lost plus delayed enforcement.
4. Successful mediation: fifty-fifty
When the parties settle the whole case through court-led mediation before the trial opens, each side bears 50% of the first-instance court fees — including cases without a monetary value (Clause 7, Article 26 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14). The direct financial upside of mediation:
- A plaintiff certain to win still "loses" 50% of fees — but gains speed, enforceability, and zero appeal risk.
- A defendant certain to lose pays only 50% instead of 100%.
Important caveat: if the parties reach a settlement at the first-instance trial session itself (after the trial has opened, outside the pre-trial mediation phase), they bear first-instance court fees as if the case had gone to judgment — the 50% rate no longer applies (Clause 8, Article 26 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14). The earlier you mediate, the larger the fee benefit.
In settlement negotiations, that 50% figure is a real bargaining chip — factor it into the math.
5. Enforcement of the fee award
The fee allocation in a judgment is enforced like any other part of it. If the losing party does not voluntarily pay, the winning party (or the court, for state-collected fees) proceeds through civil judgment enforcement: the enforcement authority can deduct from the loser's assets or income. In practice, fee awards against individuals with no seizable assets are hard to collect — another reason to weigh the defendant's solvency before litigating. For businesses, unpaid court fee obligations can also complicate future litigation, since courts check fee compliance history. The takeaway: a fee award is not symbolic; it is an enforceable monetary obligation, and budgeting for the scenario where you pay it is part of honest case assessment.
6. What if you cannot afford the fees?
The law does not price poor litigants out of court:
- Exemptions (Article 12 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14): employees claiming wages, severance or social-insurance benefits; maintenance claimants; people challenging administrative decisions in education at commune level; people claiming compensation for harm to life, health, honor or dignity; children; poor and near-poor households; the elderly; persons with disabilities; revolutionary contributors; ethnic minorities in communes with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions; certified relatives of martyrs.
- 50% reduction (Article 13 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14): persons hit by a force-majeure event leaving them without sufficient assets to pay, certified by the commune-level People's Committee of their residence.
A written application with proof (poor/near-poor certification, policy decisions, commune certification of force majeure, etc.) must be filed with the court for consideration under Articles 14 and 15 of Resolution 326/2016. Note: the law provides no general "deferral" of the fee advance; the correct route in hardship is to apply for exemption or reduction. Note also: fee exemption does not cover other litigation costs like expertise or valuation. Corporate litigants should note that exemptions are personal in nature — companies cannot claim poverty-based relief, so fee budgeting belongs in every litigation budget from day one, alongside lawyer fees and the cost of evidence gathering.
7. Quick Q&A
Q: If I lose, do I pay all the court fees?
A: As a rule, the losing party bears first-instance civil court fees. But if you lose only part of the claim (e.g., the plaintiff claims VND 10 billion and the court awards 6 billion), fees are apportioned according to each side's win–loss ratio — the loser does not shoulder everything.
Q: Does the loser pay the winner's lawyer fees?
A: No, as a rule. Lawyer fees are each party's own cost and are not court fees, so they cannot be shifted to the loser — unless the parties agreed otherwise (e.g., the contract makes the breaching party bear legal costs) or a specialized law provides differently.
Q: Who bears appellate court fees?
A: The appellant pays the appellate court fee advance. If the appeal succeeds (the first-instance judgment is amended), the advance is refunded; if the appeal fails, the appellant bears the appellate court fees.
Q: How are fees handled when mediation succeeds?
A: When the parties settle through court-led mediation before the trial opens, each side bears 50% of the first-instance court fees (Clause 7, Article 26 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14) — one of the financial benefits of mediation over a full trial.
Q: What if I cannot afford the court fees?
A: The law provides exemptions (children, poor/near-poor households, the elderly, persons with disabilities, revolutionary contributors, etc. — Article 12 of Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14) and a 50% reduction for force-majeure hardship certified by the commune-level People's Committee (Article 13). A written application with supporting documents is required; there is no general deferral of the fee advance.
8. When to work with a lawyer
Work with a lawyer before filing: estimate fees from the dispute value, assess the winnability of each prayer for relief (so you don't "win but still pay fees"), draft legal-cost clauses into contracts, and design a mediation strategy. After judgment, counsel helps decide whether to appeal or enforce immediately. FLAT Law Firm advises on litigation strategy, civil and commercial disputes, and losing lawsuit pay winner court fees Vietnam questions — hotline 0988424851.
References
- Resolution 326/2016/UBTVQH14 (effective 01/01/2017).
- Civil Procedure Code 2015 (effective 01/7/2016).
- Cross-checked via thuvienphapluat.vn and luatvietnam.vn at time of writing (28/9/2026).
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