If You Need A Lawyer In Chiangmai

[MAJORUS]

15 months ago I was involved in a road accident on the Hang Dong Rd. No one was injured and the BIB did the normal procedure in which the two drivers who had caused the accident pleaded guilty and were fined.

The BIB also wanted me to plead guilty to careless driving which I refused to do. Plus I refused to sign a statement they had typed up which said I had run into the back of the vehicle in front, when in fact the vehicle in front had swung into my lane and hit my vehicle on the side. The officer was miffed off to say the least that he could not clear up the thing there and then and I left.

Four months later I got my car back with a repair bill of nearly 200,000 baht.

I went to the**** law firm and told a lawyer called **** that I wanted legal letters sent to the two other drivers involved in the accident, demanding payment for repairing my car. This he did for a fee of 3000 baht. 2 months later we had no replies to the letters. *** said we should start court proceedings to recover the money. He said his company charged 4000 baht per hour and asked for 35000 baht cash upfront to prepare the case, which I paid.

In August last year I received a date for a first hearing. A few days later my wife got a call from the BIB who had handled the case telling her that I had to report to the police station as they were going to charge me with careless driving. I returned to the ***and asked *** to go with me to the police, as I did not trust them due to their prior attempt to railroad me. He said there was no need for me to go and that he would go on my behalf. At the beginning of October 2 BIB from our local station visited my wife’s business and asked why I had not reported to Chiang Mai police station. My wife explained that my lawyer had dealt with this and she thought it was finished. She phoned the BIB at Chiang Mai who said they had never seen or spoken to any lawyer and gave me a deadline of the next Friday morning to report or they will issue a warrant for my arrest.

We attempted to contact*** and got no reply until late Thursday afternoon when I was told there was no one available to go to the police station. At this point my wife phoned a contact who got us his personal lawyer to help. We met, explained the case and she went with us to the police station. The BIB did not know she was a lawyer, produced a document and asked me to sign it. I handed the document to my lawyer who read it and refused to let me sign, as it was an admission of guilt. She made him amend the statement to her satisfaction then I signed. The policeman then charged me with careless driving (a year after the event) and produced an arrest warrant saying he was going to execute it that night if I had not turned up. On the Friday afternoon my wife and I visited**** to demand an explanation and again there was nobody available. I informed a young lady at the desk that if *** did not contact me I would return with the policeman he was meant to contact and he could explain his lack of actions to him. Tho called at 6 pm and said he would meet me at his office on Saturday. The meeting was heated and resulted with him paying back half my fee (17500B). It was agreed he would keep the other half for preparing the court case. I removed all documents pertaining to the case and immediately took them to my new lawyer. The next day Sunday, my lawyer appeared at my home with her husband who is also a lawyer and told me we had a problem. The case was seriously flawed and would be thrown out if it were brought to court, she pointed out seven serious discrepancies. One of the drivers had three different names, the car numbers and who was driving are wrong. My lawyer said she would rewrite the case and we could only hope the court would accept it. The next day I returned to***and again nobody could see me, so I gave the girl at the desk a copy of the case with all of the errors highlighted and a demand for the return of my money. I told her to tell Tho; I will sue him should the court not accept the new case. Fortunately the court did accept the new case and the prosecutor threw out the driving charge.

*** have refused to refund my money claiming that I had signed a document which they refuse to produce. I am now in the process of suing *** for professional negligence and reporting them to the Thai Law Society. If things had not worked out, I could have spent 4 nights in a police jail and lost a lawsuit worth 280,000 Baht because of these clowns, plus all the inconvenience, stress and extra expenses they caused me. *** are dangerous, dishonest and should be stopped before they get someone into serious trouble. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had a problem with these bunch of shysters.

[yumidesign]

W O W thats quite a story. you were very brave to fight the system, good for you and glad that it worked out ok. It shows others that you should be prepared to fight for your rights - Right is might!!!!!! Yea!

Edited April 16, 2009 by yumidesign

[chiangmaibruce]

Hope you get your money back. I spoke them (same office) about a matter but I did not go ahead with it - lucky me. If you find out any info about making complaints to the thai law society would you mind posting in here thanks - I have never come across anything on that process and would be interested to know how it works here

[IanForbes]

All I can add is YIKES! When you can't trust law firms and the authorities it sends a terrible message to everyone involved in any sort of business. And, people wonder why foreigners don't want to do business with Thais? Just another reason for the country to be in the quagmire it presently is.

[orang37]

All I can add is YIKES! ... snip ...

Khun Ian, What is this : no picture of a fish ?

~o:37;

Edited April 16, 2009 by orang37

[Blinky Bill]

How about this one?

[orang37]

How about this one?

I think Khun Blinky make good chum.

~o:37;

[IanForbes]

All I can add is YIKES! ... snip ...

Khun Ian, What is this : no picture of a fish ?

~o:37;

Sure. This is what needs to happen to the crooked lawyers in this thread...

[Dean1953]

 I guess that there is no equiviliant to a state bar association in Thailand.  It would probably be pretty hard to get him disbarred then.

 

[Loaded]

Common practice if you go to court is that your solicitor will make a deal with the other side and therefore make double his fee.

[sbk]

Please read the forum rules regarding defamation. Naming and shaming is frowned upon as Thai Visa cannot be certain of the motives of the OP in posting such accusations.

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