E-Mail Legal Accountability

[hgma]

Case.1

Somebody makes threats and slander by e-mail

Can this be legal grounds for a court case?

NongKhai court president 11/4/2011.........to me in person quote"only when proven DAMAGE is conducted there will be grounds to accept"unquote

Further more..." In case of slander with NO proven damage it will be considered honor...and will be hard to prosecute, since honor is a personal matter"

case 2 (no reference)

somebody promises to buy a subject........

but withdraws his commitment

liable?

can you confirm that in all cases e-mail can NOT be used for legal grounds?

many thanks

[Sunbelt Asia]

It seems there is some confusion here, Thailand's laws are not on slander alone but rather on defamation which includes slander and libel. Defamation can still be prosecuted even if true if the defamation results in financial losses for a business or individual.

If you have been defamed in an email it is possible to file criminal charges with the police provided you have all the evidence to make the charge. Any and all information about the person should be included to make the case.

As for the second question, there can be no legally binding contract in an email as there are no witnesses, it is necessary to have signed witnesses on a legal contract. If a person agrees to a purchase via email then it would be difficult to take to court as it is not possible to prove that it is specifically that person who agreed to the purchase since there were no witnesses, ie it is possible that someone else could write an email and send it and it is not necessarily the owner of that email account.

[sunbelt][/sunbelt]