HCM City is seeking Government approval to establish private bailiff offices following a five-year trial that it says has been very successful. The city People's Committee said there are now 11 such offices - up from eight in 2011 - while the number of documents they serve has increased by 20,000 a year on average. The offices handled 100,731 documents in the first six months of this year, double the number in the same period in 2011. They have also prepared 32,527 certified written minutes to serve as evidence for use in courts in the past five years. The demand for bailiff services continued to rise in the last five years, according to the People's Committee. The major duties of a bailiff include enforcing civil verdicts, serving claims, summonses and orders from courts to defendants, and executing civil enforcement warrants. Pham Thi Thanh Loan, Deputy Head of the HCM City Civil Verdicts Execution Department, said private bailiffs have helped reduce the pressure on judicial officers, helped speed up enforcement of civil verdicts and the settling of civil disputes and reduce the number of repetitive claims. She said the private bailiff offices have thus helped improve protection of people's legitimate interests as well as the functioning of judicial agencies. HCM City was the first locality in the country allowed by the Government to set up private bailiff's offices in 2009. Other localities like Da Nang and Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces are now seeking permission to do the same.-VNA