Accordingly, the Supreme People's Court plans to reorganize the first-instance People's Courts based on the restructuring of the current district-level People's Courts. The reorganization will follow these criteria:

Criteria regarding the number of cases to be resolved: For special urban areas ( Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), the number of cases to be resolved and adjudicated by each first-instance People's Court located in the inner city area must be 3,000 cases/year or more. The number of cases to be resolved and adjudicated by each first-instance People's Court located in the outer city area must be 1,000 cases/year or more.

For rural areas in the plains, the number of cases to be resolved and adjudicated by each first-instance People's Court is 800 cases/year or more. For mountainous areas, the number of cases to be resolved and adjudicated by each first-instance People's Court is 200 cases/year.

Regarding the criteria for convenient and adjacent locations: The People's Courts to be merged must be geographically adjacent and have convenient transportation access.

Each district-level People's Court subject to restructuring will merge with at least one adjacent district-level People's Court also subject to restructuring, or merge with an adjacent district-level People's Court not subject to restructuring.

Criteria include economic characteristics, geographical location, population density, transportation infrastructure, and culture for each region:

For mountainous areas, because mountainous districts often have large areas but low population density and a small number of cases, applying only the criterion of the workload to be resolved would result in an excessively large operational area for the first-instance People's Courts, causing difficulties for people when they need to go to the court.

Therefore, the following criterion should be added: The distance from the location of the regional first-instance court's headquarters to the furthest location within that court's jurisdiction should not exceed 50 km.

If it is not possible to simultaneously satisfy both criteria regarding the number of cases and the distance from the location of the regional first-instance court to the furthest location within its jurisdiction, the distance criterion shall be given priority.

For island areas: Instead of establishing regional first-instance courts in each island district, judges and court officials from adjacent regional first-instance courts with sufficient capacity will be assigned to receive citizens, handle lawsuits and requests, and conduct mobile trials of various types of cases according to a monthly schedule.

In addition, priority will be given to locations with newly constructed headquarters in the recent period and some projects under the investment project for repair, renovation, upgrading and construction of headquarters of People's Courts at all levels (phase 1).

To prepare the report for submission to the Politburo , the Supreme People's Court requests that provincial People's Courts participate in the research and provide feedback. In case of differing opinions, please analyze, clarify, and propose specific solutions.

Comments should be submitted to the Supreme People's Court before March 2, 2025, for compilation and reporting to the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Supreme People's Court.

In document No. 50 of the Supreme People's Court sent to the Chief Justices of the People's Courts of provinces and centrally-administered cities regarding the suspension of repairs and maintenance of working offices of district-level People's Courts, it is also clearly stated:

To ensure cost savings and avoid waste during the repair and maintenance of working offices for district-level People's Courts after the reorganization and streamlining of the organizational structure, the Supreme People's Court requests the Chief Justices of People's Courts of provinces and centrally-administered cities to urgently direct the district-level People's Courts under their management (excluding capital cities and island districts) that have been allocated funds from the Supreme People's Court to temporarily suspend the organization and implementation of repairs and maintenance of working offices until the Plan for reorganization and streamlining of the organizational structure of the Judiciary is approved by the competent authority, expected in April 2025.