Helping small and medium-sized businesses to be less confused about legal issues

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - Small and medium-sized enterprises pay little attention to legal issues, business owners often assign responsibility to accountants to research legal documents related to finance, business management and regulations on business transactions to draft contracts with partners. When a dispute arises, businesses seek help and support from lawyers and experts. 

Therefore, when legal problems arise, many small and medium-sized enterprises are confused because they lack a good legal team at the enterprise to solve the problem. 

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A small and medium-sized enterprise in Vinh Cuu district proposed a solution to more frequently and continuously connect legal support between the Provincial Bar Association and small and medium-sized enterprises in the province. 

Businesses are not interested
To contribute to all levels and sectors in the legal support program for small and medium-sized enterprises in the province, in 2023, Dong Nai Bar Association has coordinated with the Management Board of the interdisciplinary legal support program for Small and medium-sized enterprises in the period 2021-2025 (Ministry of Justice) to organize 2 conferences: Applying labor laws for enterprises in the province and Some effective legal support models for small and medium-sized enterprises, attracting hundreds of legal officers at small and medium-sized enterprises and legal experts in many fields to exchange practical experiences.

At seminars and discussions organized by the Dong Nai Bar Association in coordination with the Management Board of the interdisciplinary legal support program for small and medium enterprises in the 2021-2025 period in 2023, owners of some small and medium enterprises said that, only when businesses have large, complicated disputes that they need to invite lawyers and consultants to resolve them by signing a legal service contract; or businesses choose the solution of finding information on their own online, using human resources that do not specialize in the legal field within the business.

MSc An Thi Ngoc Lan (Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City) said that it was quite common for small and medium enterprises in Vietnam to find lawyers and experts when they encountered problems. However, it was still better than businesses doing everything by themselves, leading to higher risk of failure. Through a survey by the Ministry of Justice, nationwide only 38% of businesses have a legal department (of which full-time legal officers account for 44%, while 56% are part-time). Because the legal team at businesses receives little attention and appropriate resources, when businesses need it, they seek support from lawyers and legal experts.

Find solutions this issue
Legal support activities for small and medium-sized enterprises are the responsibility of many agencies and are specified in Decree No. 55/2019/ND-CP dated June 24, 2019 of the Government on legal aid for small and medium sized businesses, in order to improve understanding, awareness and habits of complying with the law, limit risks and legal obstacles in business activities of enterprises, contributing to improving the competitiveness of enterprises and the effectiveness of law enforcement.  

Lawyer Le Quang Y, Chairman of the Provincial Bar Association, said that Dong Nai had nearly 500 lawyers working professionally in 147 organizations. This is a reputable resource and channel for small and medium-sized enterprises in the province to turn to when in need. However, to strengthen the relationship between lawyers and small and medium-sized enterprises in the province in the field of legal aid, in the coming time, more diverse activities and forms are needed to connect such as: seminars, discussions, direct consultations, exchanges, dialogues... between businesses and experts and lawyers.

Lawyer Vu Duy Nam (Dong Nai Bar Association) said that once businesses were aware and raised the importance of legal and regulatory issues in production, business, operations, and contract signing, strictly carry out obligations such as taxes, labor safety, employee health, etc. could they avoid many subjective and objective risks, only then the relationship between businesses and lawyers and experts truely is improved. ​