Lawyers For Teachers/Work Contract Problems

[SukPeter]

Hi

Can anyone recomand a good lawyer for a dispute with a school? I need some adcice how to react of beeing made

redunded.

[DragonQuest]

siam legal

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

siam legal

I retain and work with legal counsel for a variety of matters in Bangkok. I can't recommend Siam Legal under any circumstances.

For labor law, you might want to try Novel Nishiu & Pattarin. They have a US attorney on staff and they actually emphasize employment law issues in their law practice.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Scott
URL removed/Scott

[Scott]

Please don't post links to commercial sites (other than forum sponsors). If you want to send this type of information, please PM the OP.

[canuck1941]

Think long and hard about taking a Thai employer to a Thai court with a Thai lawyer for being, I suppose, wrongfully dismissed, or being redundant. (You really should pay more attention to spelling. You're a teacher after all but it doesn't inspire confidence.) I once took a school to court and hired two lawyers, one to watch the first one and I learned that my case, multiple breaches of a labour contract and summary dismissal with a threat of jail, would take nine months before it would appear in court. And lawyers want the money up front, and I wasn't positive they would do the work. I just kissed it off and never regretted it. It's disgraceful that teachers are often the hapless victims of scams, but that's the nature of this business. Remember, the school is there primarily to make money. It's a business first and foremost. ESL teaching can be a lucrative racket even with incompetent teachers and abysmal labour relations. That's just the way it is. Good luck.

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Think long and hard about taking a Thai employer to a Thai court with a Thai lawyer for being, I suppose, wrongfully dismissed, or being redundant. (You really should pay more attention to spelling. You're a teacher after all but it doesn't inspire confidence.) I once took a school to court and hired two lawyers, one to watch the first one and I learned that my case, multiple breaches of a labour contract and summary dismissal with a threat of jail, would take nine months before it would appear in court. And lawyers want the money up front, and I wasn't positive they would do the work. I just kissed it off and never regretted it. It's disgraceful that teachers are often the hapless victims of scams, but that's the nature of this business. Remember, the school is there primarily to make money. It's a business first and foremost. ESL teaching can be a lucrative racket even with incompetent teachers and abysmal labour relations. That's just the way it is. Good luck.

It sounds like you made your case too expensive to prosecute, and then you dropped it, so you will never know whether it was worth pursuing. If you have to hire another attorney to monitor the attorney representing you in litigation, you're better off dismissing your primary attorney and finding a lawyer who you can trust.

The one valid point you make is that lawyers in Thailand all charge retainers. They don't work on a contingency basis as in the West. This means that you better make sure your case is worth pursuing (cost-benefit analysis) before you put money down and retain a lawyer. Expect that it will cost anywhere from 300,000 to 800,000 baht to take a case to trial. Is your case worth more than that? It needs to be worth a lot more than that, if you are going to invest the time and effort in pursuing a lawsuit.

So, when you initially consult with the lawyer, ask how much can you recover in damages, and whether you can also recover any punitive damages or compensation for attorney fees. Find out the lawyer's hourly rate. You can ask for an estimate of fees on the case, but don't expect a reliable estimate, or even a ball-park guess. Attorneys in Thailand are notorious for telling you a reasonable amount, you pay that by way of retainer up-front, and then a few months later, they will tell you the retainer is exhausted and to do any more work on the case, you will have to pay another retainer. Eventually, they bleed you to death. Moreover, make sure you monitor the hours and work output of your retained counsel. Often, the attorneys will exhaust the retainer, and have no work to show for the hours they have claimed.

I was a lawyer for many years in the U.S. I now have the responsibility at a large company for overseeing the work done by its attorneys around the world, particularly in Bangkok. I find that I need to direct Thai attorneys every step of the way. I know the Thai statutory codes better than they do. I understand litigation better than they do. I rely on them only to handle the procedural steps of the matters to which they are assigned, as I have little way to obtain experience with the Thai court system which bars any practice by non-native attorneys.