Civil Court Appeal

[rayburnuk 0]

Hello guys,

 

I wonder if any members have any knowledge or advice about civil court appeals. I have lived in Pattaya since 2003 and have bought a condo here. I made a purchase contract for a small are of land in Pattaya and paid a significant drposit through my Thai lawyer. I cancelled the contract legally but the seller refused to return my money. I started a lengthy and expensive civil action to recover this money and was ultimately awarded the judgment in my favour. I thought this was the end of the matter but now I understand the other party has raised an appeal. I have already made a significant outlay on court fees, guarantee fees and lawyer fees and as far as I know this appeal procedure is basically straight forward with no new witness parties or no new evidence andappears that it is basically a review of the complaint, the trial submissions and the court judgment. My Thai lawyer , who does not speak English himself now wants a significant sum of money to 'defend' the appeal?

I am reluctant to 'defend' the other parties appeal as I feel I have nothing to defend and I remain fully confidant of this appeal outcome or any further appeal procedure. I believe I will be notified of the appeal court decision although this could be a long way down the line. I do not know if it is compulsory for me to defend this appeal and if this appeal is not defended then does this have any bearing on the possible outcome of the court of Appeal hearing.

 

Any personal experience of these matters would be much appreciated. I understand that I will have 15 days to respond to the appeal action so I do not have much time to decide about this.

 

Rayburnuk

[Parkwahn 61]

I understood any deposits were non refundable, though clearly your win at civil court brings that into dispute ?

[timorno 30]

I understood any deposits were non refundable, though clearly your win at civil court brings that into dispute ?

 

boring with server down innit?

[joekicker 53]

The real problem with civil suits is that there is no real-world enforcement arm. In the unlikely (to me) event you win after all court options are exhausted, the builder probably won't pay you, or will submit some cockamaney plan such as paying you 500 baht a month. If he is ordered to pay and he doesn't, guess what? You have to sue him again for non-payment. It can get very, very frustrating plus, as you note, expensive. I do advise getting with your lawyer and going over all your options on this. It may be that you conclude it's not productive.

 

.

[simon_cook 22]

I paid a deposit on some land at a Thai lawyers office here about 6 years ago and when i went back to pay the balance they wouldnt accept it and didnt want to sign the land over.I think they changed their minds and decided they wanted to do something else with the plots.

So i was stuck i lost my deposit and didnt have the land.

Eventually after about 6 months of messing around i went into his office and threatened him and within an hour he had sent someone to my house with my deposit back.

Thats the only thing that worked after trying to negotiate for 6 months.

[Gary 4,119]

I agree with Joe K. Regardless of what the court decides, it is very difficult to get money back from a Thai. Once the money leaves your hand and is in their hand, it's not likely you will ever get it back despite years of court action.