# Dispute Settlement

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/investment-climate-in-thailand/dispute-settlement
- Published: 2011-01-18T15:23:45+07:00
- Author: Boris Sullivan

Thailand has a civil code, commercial code, and a bankruptcy law. Monetary judgments
are calculated at the market exchange rate. Decisions of foreign courts are not 
accepted or enforceable in Thai courts. Disputes such as the enforcement of property
or contract rights have generally been resolved through the Thai courts.

Thailand has an independent judiciary that generally is effective in enforcing property
and contractual rights. The legal process is slow in practice, however, and litigants
or third parties sometimes affect judgments through extra-legal means.

In addition, companies may establish their own arbitration agreements. Thailand 
signed the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes Between States and
Nationals of Other States in 1985, but has not yet ratified the Convention. Thailand
is a member of the New York Convention and enacted its own rules on conciliation
and arbitration in the Arbitration Act of 2002. The 2002 Arbitration Act adopted
the principles under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
The Arbitration Office of the Ministry of Justice administers these procedures.

The Bankruptcy Act was amended in 1999 to provide Chapter 11-style protection to
debtors, and to give debtors and creditors the option of negotiating a reorganization
plan through the courts instead of forcing liquidation. The Act now allows creditors
to extend additional loans to insolvent firms without losing the right to claim 
compensation during a future restructuring or liquidation process, but only if the
new loan is intended to keep the firm in operation. Also in 1999, the Act was amended
to facilitate the financial restructuring process. Higher minimum levels for individual
and corporate bankruptcies were established, and the previous ten-year period of
bankruptcy status was reduced to three years. The 1999 Bankruptcy Act also established
a specialized court for bankruptcy cases. The Bankruptcy Courts are divided into
the Central Bankruptcy Court which has jurisdiction throughout the Bangkok Metropolitan
areas and the Regional Bankruptcy Courts.

In 2004, Parliament approved changes to the Bankruptcy Act including tightening 
the rules under which some debtors can emerge from bankruptcy status and streamlining
the legal appeals process in bankruptcy and restructuring cases. In an effort to
quicken the foreclosure process, amendments to the Civil Procedure Code on Execution
of Judgments have limited appeal options available to debtors. Under the old regulations,
debtors were free to appeal each action taken with respect to the execution of a
bankruptcy judgment. Such appeals, often frivolous in nature, were one of the tactics
debtors used to delay the foreclosure process. In June 2001, the Supreme Court set
an important legal precedent by ruling in favor of implementing a creditor-backed
corporate restructuring plan opposed by the former owner of the business in question.
The Act was later amended in 2005 by granting the Bankruptcy Court the power to 
consider bankruptcy cases that involve criminal matters.

Individual cases can take months or even years to work their way through the legal
system, however, and many businesses have urged the government to speed up the bankruptcy
procedure. In 2006, new procedural rules were established to accelerate the bankruptcy
court proceedings by encouraging the use of electronic equipment and express mail
in communications between courts. Under the new rules, provincial courts have the
authority to issue search warrants and arrest warrants, and to imprison or release
a defendant. Other amendments to the Bankruptcy Act are currently under consideration.

In 2009, the Bankruptcy Court issued verdicts on 33,061 cases.

Investment Climate Statements provide a thorough description of the overseas environments
in which U.S. investors must operate. The statements cover general characteristics,
such as openness to foreign investment and treatment of foreign investors, as well
as details about procedures for licensing and similar administrative matters. The
statements are updated each year as Chapter 7 in the Country Commercial Guides, 
a series to be found by country at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s website: http://
www.export.gov/.

## Comments

### By: Jeanette Savage

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/investment-climate-in-thailand/dispute-settlement#comment-45337
- Published: 2012-03-30T12:11:48+07:00

Dear Sirs

I wish to complete a Creditor’s Claim Form for money owed to us in Thailand. Is 
there one that I can download.
 Many thanks Jeanette Savage