I think I got cheated by my Thai lawyer - what should I do?

[JouniF]

I'm about 95% sure my Thai lawyer cheated me. Maybe "cheat" is a wrong word here, but lets just say that he may have given me bad legal advice which caused me to lose over 60.000 baht in cash and a lot of my time and work. I know, it's not a lot of money but I'm still in somewhat disbelief because something like this has never happened to me before. I have been doing business in three continents, lived abroad before and have hired around a dozen lawyers before, and I have never had any issues like this before.

As far as I can tell, my options are:

1) Let it go. Consider the losses a lesson about doing business in Thailand and just move forward.

2) Contact the Thai lawyer association and present the facts of the case to them.

3) Go public about the case: post online the facts of the case and let people make their own conclusions whether the law firm treated me correctly or not. Lets just say that I'm an online marketing professional and this law firm has a website. It would require very little effort from me to make my story appear before the law firm's official website on Google results. After which, I would bet the company would have very difficult times to get any new farang customers.

4) Go semi-public about the case: tell everything what happened but without giving away my name.

In any other option than the first one, the risk is that the law firm pulls off some trick and give me trouble with immigration. Legally they cannot touch me since I have not done anything illegal, but there is always the risk that the lawyer is a well respected member of the Thai community and maybe they know the right people at the immigration, for example, and they can give me trouble that way. I have a business visa (IB) and a work permit, so I would think I'm in a fairly good position in that regards too.

Of course, I'm not doing anything before I'm 100% sure of what happened. But lets say that my feeling is right and that I got cheated, what would you recommend me to do?

[AYJAYDEE]

get a lawyer

[meatboy]

option 1.

[JouniF]

get a lawyer

And do what?

[AYJAYDEE]

get a lawyer

And do what?

and take his advice on what to do of course

[CharlieH]

You have now joined a not so exclusive club of probably several hundred in the same situation.

My advice, do nothing initially, sit on it, gather more info, read and be aware of the libel and defamation laws here, they are draconian but very effective and could be used against you.

If it can be done anonymously and effectively via the net as you suggest, then just to make you feel better , nail the bast***s.

[bkkgooner]

Go with option 2

Screwing over farangs seems to be a popular past time among Thai lawyers

[hughben]

Did you question the lawyer/firm about what happened?

I don't know the legalities about secretly recording conversations, but I would do that if it is not illegal, should you meet with them about it.

[JouniF]

Did you question the lawyer/firm about what happened?

I don't know the legalities about secretly recording conversations, but I would do that if it is not illegal, should you meet with them about it.

I like to take care of all business like this in writing, so I have everything they ever said to me in writing, such as emails. I have been in contact with them about this issue but surprisingly, after I started to ask some questions that maybe gave away that I might feel something is wrong, their interest of answering me has dropped considerably...

[somchaismith]

Otion 4 and let people give you advice on what your next move should be

[Scully]

Option 3 would be a very bad idea,especially as it's a lawyer.

[speedtripler]

get a lawyer

its hard to find a thai lawyer whos willing to take a malpractice case against another thai lawyer

since theyre all as bent as each other and such a case would likely be remembered well into the

future whetehr its win ,lose or draw (settlement etc )

[phazey]

Option 1). If there's one thing i've learnt over the years, it's that if you want to leave Thailand with £1,000,000 - you should go there with £2,000,000.

[rwdrwdrwd]

I've done option 3 in the UK before over a 10k GBP scam by a perpetual phoenix company director and his circle of pop up director / company name changing family members and mates. 50+ companies over 20 years, never a tax return in sight, companies changing names back and forth every year - I'm still amazed they could get away with it despite numerous people reporting them.

I did get the money a couple of years down the line, but it was a worrying time and upsetting some dodgy people. Police / court / bailiff process was absolutely useless as ever and I only got the cash in the end because they'd done some other people for a much larger sum (10 - 20x it) and I'd pushed a load of info about them to the top of Google for relevant phrases and names, and people were reverse engineering their activity from it. They are still doing it today.

I wouldn't do it in the UK again if I thought they could find out where I live, and I definitely wouldn't do it in Thailand to a lawyer given my immigration status, easy locatability and their likely connections alongside the defamation laws in Thailand.

The threat of Option 2, potentially exercising Option 2, and if that doesn't work out, Option 1.

Edited May 23, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[Soutpeel]

My advice, don't do anything yet, you say your self not sure if you have cheated or not and if one could take legal steps for taking bad advice, the jails all over the world would be fully of financial advisors and possibly lawyers....

key world is advice or opinion, its actually the person asking for the advice who makes the decision ultimately good or bad

I have a business visa (IB) and a work permit, so I would think I'm in a fairly good position in that regards too.

Don't rely on this, if the person concerned is "connected" all it can take is a complaint to the DOL and they can revoke your WP, and before TV's finest bar stool lawyers start jumping in saying it's illegal/ it violates human rights, contact your embassy, the UN, I do know of at least two cases where a Thai national put a complaint in about a farang on a WP and the DOL did revoke their WP's

[medisasean]

option 4

[beachproperty]

My initial response is.....How did they "cheat" you? What are the facts? You need not use their name or yours but can describe the situation which occurred in general terms. You say "bad legal advice" causing you to lose money? what was the legal advice? and why is it that you lost the money?

Without further info ....I'd walk away....and chalk it up as a lesson in life! Too much grief for so little money

[Berkshire]

My initial response is.....How did they "cheat" you? What are the facts? You need not use their name or yours but can describe the situation which occurred in general terms. You say "bad legal advice" causing you to lose money? what was the legal advice? and why is it that you lost the money?

Without further info ....I'd walk away....and chalk it up as a lesson in life! Too much grief for so little money

Agree. Did the OP lose his case, is that what it's about? Happens all the time, at least half the time anyways. Or did the lawyer take his money and not do anything? If it's, say, the case of the lawyer saying it's ok to buy property using the company route (for example), then it's a case of buyer beware. But we're all speculating. With no further info, I'd agree that 60K is not worth going to war after and the OP should just walk away.