Supreme Court - Average period of deliberation of civil cases?

[dabhand]

Would have used the Legal forum but not now available.

Anyone with direct knowledge of recent average length of time that can be expected for civil cases that have been referred to the Supreme (Dika) Court?

Lawyers are indicating a year or more before any judgement is handed down, with the possibility of far longer due to the current backlog of cases.

Interesting that there has been a recent change in the way that appeals can be referred to the SC. Previously this was on a rights based system (any cases where the dispute value was Bt200,000 or more had an automatic right of appeal) this is now being changed to a permission based system where the reason for the appeal needs to be of a significant matter and this has to be approved by the SC.

Otherwise the Appeal Court judgement is deemed final.

This should greatly reduce the time taken for SC appeals given that far fewer will go forward. Depending on the type of case and the value, most cases were being appealed up to the SC as a way to delay a final outcome, even for cases that were, in reality, slam dunks.

However, I am looking for any feedback from posters with recent experience of civil cases lodged prior to the recent changes.

[cyberfarang]

A friend had a property and tenant dispute when his tenants stopped paying their rent. Took him 4 years to evict them going through the civil court system.

[dabhand]

A friend had a property and tenant dispute when his tenants stopped paying their rent. Took him 4 years to evict them going through the civil court system.

My current experience is about 2 years for a mediation session + initial court hearing + appeal court plus a further 9 months, thus far, for the SC process. So likely that the total time won't be too far off your friend's 4 year time frame.

Thanks for your response.

[DILLIGAD]

I agree on that suggested timeframe, in my experience. Still not been paid legal fees costs that were awarded to me around 6 years ago!!!!!!

[dabhand]

I agree on that suggested timeframe, in my experience. Still not been paid legal fees costs that were awarded to me around 6 years ago!!!!!!

Thanks for that.

Yes, good point on the settlement issue. At the moment I would be happy to be in that position but am expecting a run around scenario should the outcome be positive.

[DILLIGAD]

I agree on that suggested timeframe, in my experience. Still not been paid legal fees costs that were awarded to me around 6 years ago!!!!!!

Thanks for that.

Yes, good point on the settlement issue. At the moment I would be happy to be in that position but am expecting a run around scenario should the outcome be positive.

Being careful what I say on open forum, but incentives had to be (unfortunately) involved just to get a job done.