Isaan Lawyers

[bazmlb]

Welcome to our new and returning advertiser Isaan Lawyers, great to have you back on board.

http://bit.ly/isaanlawyers

[SantiSuk]

Not many people clapping

[Thaddeus]

Not many people clapping

Could be lots if they are all one handed.

Anyway, good people at Isaan Lawyers, have recommended a few ex-pats here to use them, haven't disappointed yet.

[swissie]

Just curious: What would be their main field of litigation and especially catering to whom ?

As far as I know, the theft of a chicken is usually handled by the "Poo Yay Baan" among Thais.

Last wills and other major legal documentations should pass through well estabished Law- Firms in Bangkok and nothing less. Copies of it all MUST be deposited at ones embassy.

- Just in case such documents are stored in a shoebox somewhere in the Isaan and can not "be found anymore" when the time comes that such documentation is of essential importance to a Farang.

As opposite to that, chances that your Embassy will approach you by saying "can not be found anymore" are slim. This is called beeing on the safe side.

Cheers.

[Thaddeus]

Just curious: What would be their main field of litigation and especially catering to whom ?

As far as I know, the theft of a chicken is usually handled by the "Poo Yay Baan" among Thais.

Last wills and other major legal documentations should pass through well estabished Law- Firms in Bangkok and nothing less. Copies of it all MUST be deposited at ones embassy.

- Just in case such documents are stored in a shoebox somewhere in the Isaan and can not "be found anymore" when the time comes that such documentation is of essential importance to a Farang.

As opposite to that, chances that your Embassy will approach you by saying "can not be found anymore" are slim. This is called beeing on the safe side.

Cheers.

From your user name, would it be a wild stab in the dark for me to guess that you are Swiss?

If you are as such, I and many other people would like to ask you a few questions about the theft of a few chickens, or should we say the safe storage of a few chickens.

Isaan Lawyers provide a good and valuable service....... end of.

[Dancealot]

http://bit.ly/isaanlawyers

It's very interesting but unfortunately this page contains many bad links

[JurgenG]

I have a house near Korat where I spend a lot of time. People I talked with are generally quite happy with Isaan Lawyers.

I never had any business with them and I don't know any of their lawyers, it's just the general reputation they have around here.

[Farma]

Having dealt with a number of lawyers in Thailand both good and bad I recommend anyone wishing to engage legal services do a background search. A simple google search will suffice in most cases.

[JoePai]

Having dealt with a number of lawyers in Thailand both good and bad I recommend anyone wishing to engage legal services do a background search. A simple google search will suffice in most cases.

Quite agree and Isaan Lawyers are one of the good guys you can rely on

[Mario2008]

1 post deleted. This is a welcome back thread, not about hanging people to dry.

[Maestro]

...Last wills and other major legal documentations...Copies of it all MUST be deposited at ones embassy...

1. That's an interesting suggestion. How much does your embassy, presumably the embassy of Switzerland, charge you for this service?
   
2. After depositing copies of the documents at your embassy, what do you do with originals?
   

[Maestro]

...

Last wills and other major legal documentations should pass through well estabished Law- Firms in Bangkok and nothing less.

...

Your are implying that all law firms outside Bangkok are not capable of drawing up "last wills and other major legal documentations" equally well as firms in Bangkok. This is slander and you could be sued for it.

[Lite Beer]

Posts discussing Moderation have been removed

[jamescollister]

Question, do they have an office in Ubon, link site map shows none. Like to have some wills made, but have yet to find an English speaking lawyer in the area. Jim

[Litlos]

Question, do they have an office in Ubon, link site map shows none. Like to have some wills made, but have yet to find an English speaking lawyer in the area. Jim

I have had a good experience with an online service for wills in Thailand. No desire to hijack this thread so PM me if interested and I will forward details.

Cheers

[jamescollister]

Question, do they have an office in Ubon, link site map shows none. Like to have some wills made, but have yet to find an English speaking lawyer in the area. Jim

I have had a good experience with an online service for wills in Thailand. No desire to hijack this thread so PM me if interested and I will forward details.

Cheers

Thanks for the offer, but this is a bit more complex, it has to do with the FIL being a director and share holder in our company. We have an accountancy firm, very good, but poor English and a lot gets lost in translation. Jim

[ThaiLawOnline]

I just saw the topic.

First, if you have the greatest law firm in Bangkok or the smallest in Isaan, nobody has a database for Wills that is managed and registered by the authorities.

So there is no argument to use a law firm in Bangkok or anywhere else. Maybe a competitor has a law firm in Bangkok!!! But the argument with the embassy is good, if you wish the embassy to know the content of your Will. For many people, they do not want that. See below how we proceed.

Second, the amphur can register a Last Will, but again, to find it is something difficult and the administrator(s) or heir(s) must know there is a Will.

This is how we work and we believe it is the best solution for now:

A) We make more than 1 original. One for the testator, often one for the administrator of the estate (executor) and a last one for us, to put in a fire-proof safe. There is no charge if you want 2 or 3 original or to put it in our safe. We keep it as long as you wish. You can take it back and modify it anytime you want.

B ) All originals are identical and have our name and say how many original there are and where they are.

C) We can provide free of charge an ELECTRONIC COPY in PDF. This is 2013. You can also make the PDF copy secured. This copy can be sent to anyone you wish, your embassy, your family abroad, etc.

D) We remind clients EACH YEAR that we have their Will with us. A simple email, done automatically, with a list and done in BCC so it is confidential.

A client of us, a Dutch man died last week. Thursday actually. His Dutch son came to Thailand. They found the Will in a safe he had. Monday, they were at our office. His son never heard of us before but it was easy to find us. The deceased person had an electronic copy but didn't sent it to Netherlands to what I understand.

Anywhere in the world, if you have a Will, you should tell people where it is. In western countries, bar associations or notaries often have a database. Not in Thailand to what I know.

We often deal with inheritance. The biggest problem is normally not the Will, but when there is NO WILL, or the asset is not defined. In one case, we represented the heirs of a foreigner who died in Thailand. They knew he had a house in Samui. Another one in Isaan. They knew he had a truck. But no other information. No address. No title deed. In that case, the foreigner and his wife died at the same time. The family of the Thai wife went to Court quickly and hide the assets. They had a lawyer in their family and wanted to grap everything they could. We had to make a search and it was not easy but we recovered some parts for our clients.

Lately, the wife of a young foreigner passed away. The house was in her name. She didn't have a Will. Even if it was real estate and foreigners can't own land, he was entitled to inherit a part of the property according to the Law in his case. We made an agreement with the parents of the deceased and went to Court. He was entitled to sell the property in Thailand and keep all proceeds.

I personally have a Will. But the most important information is in a secured file, encrypted, and only 2 people have the password. I didn't want to put that password in a Will. It gives access to everything I own. The file is in a software called "1-password'. Available on many platform but I don't like it on phones. On a tablet (ipad) or desktop is fine. This is one of the best ways I found to protect information and to pass it away should something happen to me.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Isaanlawyers

[DILLIGAD]

Very interesting and helpful post. Thanks

D

[soihok]

Cheers Seb.

[harrry]

Hope you have more than one desktop...what will you do if the building burns down with both of you and the computer in it..

[DILLIGAD]

Hope you have more than one desktop...what will you do if the building burns down with both of you and the computer in it..

There are many easy solutions to that situation like free "cloud" storage.

[harrry]

Hope you have more than one desktop...what will you do if the building burns down with both of you and the computer in it..

There are many easy solutions to that situation like free "cloud" storage.

but Seb did not say he uses this. Even if he did and the same people had the keys he and his firend are toast and so it the password.

Edited June 27, 2013 by harrry

[ThaiLawOnline]

We used actually 2 cloud systems and automatic backups additionally on an Apple device called Time Capsule.

More than that, it is automatically synchronize on 5 devices.

We would be very unlucky if we lose all data....Devices in several hands. But you can predict the unpredictable.

If you have a better system for Thailand, I would be glad to hear about it.

Anyway, that is for myself. For the company, there is another system for the office to continue without me, should something happen to me. This is for protecting clients, and also the company which is a juristic person and different than me. I am the only foreigner (we actually have another foreign lawyer abroad on contract). All staff are Thai employees. You want to protect them, also protect my wife, etc. Any legal entity should think about the future and how to manage these kinds of problems. You want to protect the 'perenity' (not sure of the English word) of the company or your entity. A juristic person should not depend only on one or two people.

These are things everyone should think about, even if you are 30,40,50, or a business. A friend of mine, German guy, had a motorcycle accident few years ago in Korat. No insurance. It cost a fortune to his father in hospital bills (he was a doctor) and my friend, in coma, had to be transferred in Germany where he passed away few months later. Just the plane for the trip with the medical staff was about 3 million baht (if I remember, using about the space of 15 seats) but we were able to make the German government paid. Actually, his father did most of the work, I just helped him voluntaril. We had to transfer him from a private hospital to a public hospital before the German government accepted to take the relay and pay the transport to Germany.

People should also read about "Living Wills". Since 2008, this is legal in Thailand and was added in Thai Law. we call these also physician's directives or what should the doctors do if you are in a situation that you are alive but can't give consent.

You should not paranoid, but we deal with these cases every month. It is said that death (and taxes) are the only 2 sure things of life!

I also saw a case recently where a Will in Thailand was giving all properties and powers as administrator to a Thai wife of a foreigner. But a more recent Will in a foreign country was requested his ashes to be brought in his home country, with a different administrator. Basically, there was a family feud over ashes because the 2 Last Wills were different. Not fight about assets, but about ashes! i don't know how this one ended as we did not heard about the party we represented. We just advised them what we believe was best.

There is no "inheritance reserve" in Thailand. We are often asked that question. That means you can exclude anyone you wish and give your assets to anyone you want. In France and I think in Norway, children or spouse are entitled to a certain % by law. We always suggest clients to have separate Wills in different countries if they have assets in different countries. Just be careful that one Will doesn't void another one. You can change your Will as many times as you wish. We had a client few years ago who changed 4 times his Will in 2 years (more or less, I can't recall all details). I believe he knew he was going to die soon. And he did, few weeks after his last Will.

Another particularity of Thai Wills is that you can appoint a 'controller of property'. This is a person that you name in your Will, that will manage the assets that you give to a minor should you died. If you are worried that the parent of this minor won't be a good manager, you can appoint a third party to do that.

Another very important point: pensions. We had a European client that had cancer in the last stage. Not curable. He had 4 pensions that could transferred or parts of them to his Thai wife. Because pensions are all different, some are private, some are from the government, each country or company can have different clauses, we made a search and found out that 2 of these pensions on 4 would be transmissible to his wife ONLY if he had a last Will. And they wanted it to be notarized. He was not able to travel so we went to his house. He passed away 2 months later. Without a notarized Will, his wife would have lost a lost of money.

In some countries, donations in vivo (before death) can save you inheritance tax. Making a Will is just part of what is called estate planning. Estate planning is larger and if you have some consirable assets, you should think to consult professional. They might make you save a lot of money and you will have peace of mind.

The best book I read about Estate Planning and Wills is from the American Bar Association. It is called "Guide to Wills and Estate" at the random house reference. I got the second edition bought at Kinokuniya, Siam Paragorn in Bangkok. Even if it is based on American Law, many of these tricks and principles explained applies to a lot of situations on different countries.

A Will should normally be simple, clear, explain your intentions a protect your family and love ones.

[ThaiLawOnline]

I forgot to say the German guy above who died, was early 30s.

Same year or a year after, a Norvegian talked to me about a Will. We never made one.

He died of a motorcycle accident few months later. He was early 40's.

We did a case defending a young thai victim of a motorcycle accident.

She was the passenger behind. Her boyfriend was in front. The car was clearly in fault.

The family of the lady got only 300,000 baht. That is what her life worth. We couldn't get more.

Her boyfriend had a broken leg if I remember and missed many weeks of work.

He got 100,000.

Insurance can also help if you can afford them.

[rosst]

Very Interesting and ones perspective changes with age. I will consult with you in the new year when I am in the Kingdom. Kopcun Mak kap or as near as a falang can get. LOL

[KhunG]

We retained Isaan Lawyers to do our USRUFRCT. We currently live in the US, but are planning on moving permanently to Thailand next year. I sent scans of the Chanote and our info, as well as our planned arrival date for a visit to the family last March. We drove over to their office - they are in Korat, we are in Buriram - and everything was ready, including a briefing on what to do with the documents. The next day at our Amphur land office in Buriram everything went smoothly. Thanks Sebastion & Belynda.

We'll be asking them to do our Thai wills when we relocate there next year.

[GinBoy2]

Last wills and other major legal documentations should pass through well estabished Law- Firms in Bangkok and nothing less. Copies of it all MUST be deposited at ones embassy.

Cheers.

My wifes cousin, who is a lawyer in Chaiyaphum was visiting while I was reading this. Pity I can't write the expletives after he read this!

[willyumiii]

I have been pleased with the services of Isaan Lawyers in Khorat in the past.

Professional, courteous, helpful.

I hope i never require legal assistance again, but if I do..

I shall return!

[CqK]

Initially we spoke with Isaan Lawyers in regards to Thai Wills. A USUFRUCT was suggested and we did that before doing our Thai Wills. I've also needed my signature notarized for US documents and Isaan Lawyers were incredibly precise in doing that. I'm very pleased with Isaan Lawyers.