Winning the case but not yet recovering the money: Notes on judgment enforcement in commercial disputes

In commercial disputes, obtaining a favorable judgment or award is only one part of the process of protecting one’s interests. In practice, the ultimate value of a lawsuit does not lie in how much money the winning party is declared entitled to receive, but in whether that amount is actually recovered. 

This is why the civil judgment enforcement stage plays a particularly important role. Without an appropriate judgment enforcement strategy, an enterprise may end up in a situation of “winning the case on paper” while still being unable to recover the money because the judgment debtor no longer has assets, deliberately disperses its assets or prolongs the judgment enforcement process.  

Judgment enforcement is the stage that determines the actual value of a judgment or award 

Under current regulations, within 05 years from the date on which a judgment or decision takes legal effect, the judgment creditor has the right to request the competent civil judgment enforcement agency to issue a judgment enforcement decision. Where the judgment or decision fixes a time limit for performing obligations, the 05-year period is counted from the date on which the obligations fall due.  

This provision shows that the law grants the judgment creditor a relatively long period to request judgment enforcement. However, in commercial disputes, a delay in requesting judgment enforcement may significantly reduce the possibility of debt recovery. After the judgment or award takes effect, the judgment debtor may change the status of its assets, close accounts, transfer assets, cease business operations or incur additional obligations to other creditors. 

Therefore, enterprises should not view judgment enforcement as a procedural step to be carried out at the very end, but should prepare a judgment enforcement strategy right from the stage of initiating a lawsuit or resolving the dispute. Identifying in advance the assets, cash flows, bank accounts, receivables or secured assets of the obligor will help increase the possibility of recovering money after the judgment or award is issued. 

Proactive verification of the judgment enforcement conditions of the judgment debtor is necessary 

One of the most common difficulties at the judgment enforcement stage is the inability to identify the assets or sources of money of the judgment debtor. Under the Law on Civil Judgment Enforcement, upon the expiry of the time limit for voluntary judgment enforcement, if the judgment debtor fails to voluntarily perform its obligations, the enforcer is responsible for verifying the judgment enforcement conditions. The judgment debtor is also obliged to truthfully declare and fully provide information on its assets, income and judgment enforcement conditions.  

However, enterprises should not depend entirely on the verification activities of the judgment enforcement agency. The current law allows the judgment creditor to verify the judgment enforcement conditions by itself or authorize another person to do so, and to provide information on the assets, income and judgment enforcement conditions of the judgment debtor to the civil judgment enforcement agency.  

Therefore, in commercial disputes, enterprises should proactively collect and update information on: 

  1. bank accounts, cash flows and receivables of the judgment debtor; 
  2. real estate, vehicles, machinery, equipment or assets with registered ownership; 
  3. contributed capital portions, shares, property rights or investments in other enterprises; 
  4. assets being held by third parties; 
  5. signs of transfer, dispersal or concealment of assets before and after the judgment or award is issued. 

Providing specific and well-grounded information will give the judgment enforcement agency a basis for promptly applying security measures or coercive measures for judgment enforcement.  

Coercive measures for judgment enforcement are an important tool for recovering money  

When the judgment debtor has the conditions for judgment enforcement but fails to voluntarily perform its obligations, the judgment enforcement agency may apply coercive measures. These measures include deduction of money from accounts; recovery and handling of money and valuable papers; subtraction from income; distraint and handling of assets; exploitation of assets; compelled transfer of objects, property rights and papers; or compelled performance or non-performance of certain acts.  

For commercial disputes, the measures of high practical significance are usually: 

  1. deduction of money from bank accounts; 
  2. distraint and handling of real estate, vehicles, machinery and equipment; 
  3. handling of secured assets; 
  4. handling of contributed capital portions, shares or property rights; 
  5. recovery of money or assets being held by third parties. 

However, the effectiveness of these measures depends largely on the ability to correctly identify the assets, the legal status of the assets and the order of payment priority. If the assets have been mortgaged, are under distraint in another case or are subject to an ownership dispute, the handling process may be prolonged and give rise to additional risks. 

Therefore, before initiating a lawsuit or during the dispute resolution process, enterprises need to assess the “possibility of winning the case” in parallel with the “possibility of enforcement”. A favorable judgment that is not tied to assets that can be handled will not create corresponding actual value for the enterprise. 

Enterprises need to prepare a judgment enforcement strategy right from the dispute stage 

From a practical perspective, enterprises should not wait until a judgment or award takes effect to begin considering the possibility of recovering money. On the contrary, a judgment enforcement strategy should be developed right from the pre-litigation stage, including: 

  1. reviewing the legal status, finances and assets of the obligor; 
  2. assessing the possibility of applying provisional emergency measures during the dispute resolution process;
  3. collecting documents evidencing the assets, cash flows or receivables of the obligor; 
  4. checking the status of secured assets, the registration of secured transactions and the order of payment priority; 
  5. anticipating judgment enforcement options in case the losing party fails to voluntarily perform its obligations; 
  6. promptly monitoring transactions showing signs of asset dispersal. 

For large debts, enterprises should also consider combining negotiation, debt confirmation, agreements on debt repayment schedules, payment security and lawsuits. In many cases, obtaining a payment commitment accompanied by secured assets or appropriate security measures may be more effective than merely pursuing a judgment without assets for enforcement. 

In commercial disputes, winning the case does not mean that the enterprise will certainly recover the money. The possibility of recovery depends on many factors, including the status of the assets of the judgment debtor, the level of proactiveness of the judgment creditor, the effectiveness of the verification of judgment enforcement conditions and the timely application of security measures and coercive measures. Therefore, enterprises need to approach commercial disputes not only from the perspective of “how to win the case”, but also from the perspective of “how to enforce the judgment or award”. Preparing a judgment enforcement strategy from the outset will help enterprises better protect their financial interests and limit situations where a judgment takes effect but does not generate actual recovery value. 

Submission date: July 31 2026

Related posts

  1. Measures To Ensure Civil Judgment Enforcement Under The 2025 Law On Civil Judgment Enforcement
  2. Essential knowledge regarding civil judgement enforcement
  3. The measure of exit suspension for civil judgment debtors
  4. Things should be noted when acquiring assets that are construction works through judgment enforcement

Disclaimers:

This article is for general information purposes only and is not intended to provide any legal advice for any particular case. The legal provisions referenced in the content are in effect at the time of publication but may have expired at the time you read the content. We therefore advise that you always consult a professional consultant before applying any content.

For issues related to the content or intellectual property rights of the article, please email cs@apolatlegal.vn.

Apolat Legal is a law firm in Vietnam with experience and capacity to provide consulting services related to Dispute Resolution and contact our team of lawyers in Vietnam via email info@apolatlegal.com.



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