What is the penalty for not buying enough professional liability insurance for lawyers?

Legal Consulting Office of Lao Dong Newspaper answers:

Clause 1, Article 9 of Decree 109/2026/ND-CP Regulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of judicial support; judicial administration; marriage and family; civil judgment enforcement; recovery, bankruptcy of enterprises, cooperatives (effective from May 18, 2026), stipulates a fine of 7 million VND to 10 million VND for one of the following acts:

a) Registering activities or registering changes in the content of registration activities not on time with competent authorities;

b) Notifying competent agencies and organizations not on time about placing a law practice establishment abroad or terminating the operation of a law practice establishment abroad;

c) Notifying and reporting incorrectly to competent agencies and organizations on the registration of activities, changes in the content of registration of activities, temporary suspension, continuation of activities, self-discontinuation of activities, consolidation, merger, conversion of professional organization forms;

d) Notifying and reporting incorrectly to competent authorities on the establishment, temporary suspension, continued operation or self-discontinuation of operations of branches of foreign law practice organizations, foreign law firms, branches of foreign law firms in Vietnam;

e) Notifying the competent authority not on time about hiring foreign lawyers;

e) Reporting incorrectly, incompletely or inaccurately about the organizational and operational situation to competent authorities;

g) Announcing incorrect content, time limit, number of times, and form as prescribed for the content of registration of activities, content of changes in registration of activities of law enforcement organizations;

h) Posting in newspapers not on time or the number of times about the establishment of foreign law practice organizations in Vietnam;

i) Buying incomplete professional liability insurance for lawyers belonging to their organization;

k) Not preparing, managing, and using books and forms as prescribed;

l) Failure to notify of changes in the content of registration of activities after registration of activities of the branch of the legal practice organization.

Clause 5, Article 4 of Decree 109/2026/ND-CP stipulates: The fine level specified in Articles 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 26, 30, 32, 34, 39, 49, 52, 55, 67, 69, 74, 75, 76 and 81 of this Decree is the fine level for administrative violations of organizations.

Thus, from May 18, 2026, if a law office does not purchase full professional liability insurance for its lawyer, it will be fined up to 10 million VND according to the above regulations.

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