JensenZ

I agree. Anyone who thinks the world is getting more violent needs a history lesson or two.

Not really, but he's 74. DOB July 26, 1949

I changed lawyers. The 2nd ones were very good and won my case.

Unfortunately there is not much you can do if a landlord refuses to pay you. Keeping a foreigner's rental deposit is like taking candy from a baby. Even if you tried to sue them for the money, you'd have to wait many months for a hearing. That will cost you a lot of money with lawyers and in court the landlord can make up any number of excuses not to pay. I had an informal discussion with a senior judge about this very topic. He said if a landlord refuses to refund your deposit, just consider it as the cost of living there. There is no legal recourse that makes any sense. The important thing is to be careful who you rent from. I won't rent from a Thai landlord as the chances of getting a refund are lower. They know the game and how easy it is to play.

I edited my comment: I meant to say: "if you are charged and convicted". When you are criminially charged (as would be the case here), you will seek bail. Of course lawyers will recommend mediation. You'd be mad if you didn't. The judges are insistent upon it too. It would take quite an effort to forgo mediation.

Publishing defamation is treated very seriously as a lot of harm can come from millions of people reading it. This is the crime I'm considering in this discussion. When you start the court process, you are given the opportunity to take part in mediation. That's your choice offered by the judge at your first hearing. That's the choice most people take and the reason why few people will serve time. If you fail mediation and go to a full blown court hearing and you're charged and convicted, you will do time. You know this going in.

Yes, thank you! My days are good now. My defamation cases started in 2015 and were resolved by mid-2017, so it was quite a relief to be done with it.

My point was to explain that you will serve time if you are found guilty of publishing defamation.

You're wrong though. What personal experience do you have?

The Thai Law doesn't specify Immigration procedures while on bail. When you are charged, you need bail, and you will hand in your passport and lose your visa. It's quite clear that if you are charged, you will serve time if proven guilty of publishing defamation. Before you can be charged, the court will schedule a court mediation session. In my case, a senior judge was appointed. They try to settle cases by mediation, but it's at the descretion of the plaintiff to agree on a settlement.

You're quoting the wrong section of the criminal code. Skip down to Section 328 - Defamation by publication. It's always much more serious if the defamation has been published, such as posting a Tiktok video. It's very hard to get out of it too as there is a public record of exactly what was said. The video would have been watched by millions of people hence the more severe punishment.

It's a criminal offence. When foreigners are charged with a criminal offense, their passports are confiscated as part of the bail conditions and your visa is cancelled. I would probably listen to the advice of the lawyers I hired. Section 328. Defamation by Publication If the offence of defamation be committed by means of publication of a document, drawing, painting, cinematography film, picture or letters made visible by any means, gramophone record or another recording instruments, recording picture or letters, or by broadcasting or spreading picture, or by propagation by any other means, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding two years and fined not exceeding two hundred thousand Baht.

I've been through 2 defamation court cases. Once as the plaintiff (lost due to lawyer's negligence) and once as the defendent (ended in court mediation)... and then fought a civil case for compensation. 5 times in court in total. I'm not going to get into full details, but you don't know as much as you think you do.

That's the point of this report. It demonstrates the wide range of Thailand's defamation laws. In fact, if you defame the police here, you can be charged too if they were offended and took the time to track you down. It's a criminal offence which carries mandatory prison time and a fine, after which you will be deported. I know of one foreigner who served 2 years for defaming his ex-wife. I defended a charge myself from a neighbour and had a court battle over it. I was lucky to win, but it cost a lot of money and several court hearings. I ended up negotiating a settlement. It's a popular gambit as most people will prefer to settle rather than do time. Tread carefully and take this sh*t seriously.

The only person sleeping here is you...

Allow me to clear up everyone's confusion. Grab Taxi and Grab Food and Grab delivery are one and the same. Motorcycles all have a load limit, and if a passenger puts the load over the limit, he has every right to refuse the business. It's nothing personal. Carrying over the load capacity is dangerous, apart from possibly damaging components. The biggest risk is blowing tyres. I have a heavy friend who I won't carry as a pillion on my bike. I already weigh 100 kg myself. I just tell him we are too heavy and that's the end of it.

I tip Panda or Grab deliverers 20 - 30 baht on the app before they have delivered.

I agree... we don't need the American way corrupting the rest of the world. It's absurd to pay tips based on the size of the bill. If you must tip, it's better to consider how much effort your server made. Why should a waiter who delivers (for example) a wagyu steak worth over 1000 baht get a tip 5 times greater than a waiter who delivers some chicken, considering the effort is the same? Of course, in the US they pay wait staff a low wage and they rely on tips. It's not like that in Thailand and most other countries. I don't tip in any restaurants that charge the 10% service charge. You're a mug if you do. Also, if you frequent the same restaurant, be aware that if you leave a good tip once, you're going to have to keep doing it, so think carefully if you feel inclined (as our American friends usually do) to leave a big tip.

I looked into this a few months ago as before May 11, 2023, a vaccination was compulsory to enter the US. The only places to get vaccinated were at public hospitals. Banglamung and Pattaya City Hospitals both did it on 2 mornings a week. It was around 1300 baht. If you visit these hospitals, they will be able to give you their current schedule.

it has nothing to do with the species. Back in the 1970's in Australia the roads were like the Wild West with drunk driving and speeding at extreme levels. It took decades to get it under control, but that's in a country where the cities are smaller and easier to control due to the way they are built... and where only a small percentage of the population ride motorcycles. Many places have one road in and one road out, so it's easy to set up road blocks. That's impossible in Bangkok. The population of Bangkok alone is nearly half of the whole of Australia.

it's not hard to inderstand the desperation of Filipinos vs Thais. Of course they need money and a lot more people need money than in Thailand. From CIA Factbook: Philippines population: 116.5 million 0-14 age: 36.5 million median age: 24.1 years Living below poverty line: 16.7% (19.5 million) (2018 est) - old numbers and I'm sure the real numbers are much higher) Thailand population: 69.8 million 0-14 age: 11 million median age: 39.1 Living below proverty line: 9.9% (6.9 million) (2018 est) The population distribution is very much younger. Population is much bigger. Poverty levels are much higher. With a much younger population, growing much faster, the disparity will increase quickly. Population growth rate: Philippines: 1.58%. Thailand: 0.2%. Nearly 8 times higher than Thailand.

The NPA were quite active in the area I lived in Leyte. They used to come around asking for donations... and you definitely pay them if you want a peaceful and healthy life. (What's the point of coming on here complaining about "rinse and repeat"... no one is forcing you to contribute. There are new people here all the time, so posts 10 years ago are of no use.) The biggest problem in the Philippines is that the federal goverment has very little control over most of the provinces. The provincial areas are run by weathy families (clans)... they control the police and the courts. They have judges in their pockets. The Philippines is like a collection of lawless jungles. Justice is meted out locally by the ruling clans. Justice is primal. If you rape or kill someone, they kill you - probably chop you up and bury you. They normally remove the heads to make indentification difficult.

Whenever I was living in the province, my wife's mother was very insistent that I never go out alone. Not that I wanted to as there was nowhere to go in a rural town in Leyte. They were dead scared I might find another lady LOL. It happens too as the single ladies in the provinces (read - poor communities) are like vultures around foreigners. There was a recent story about one elderly foreigner who used to go for excercise walks on his own and he found another and moved in with her. It caused quite the stir.

Actually the security guards do practice shooting their shotguns at ranges, so they are not totally useless.

Well, everyone in Thailand thinks my Filipino wife is Thai until she talks. I didn't really want to get into the age old discussion of which is more beautiful as that has been done to death. My wife holds here own very well in that department. A lot of the Filipinos you see in Thailand are working as maids, older with many children back home to support, so you don't see the cream of the crop.