THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Chusert Supasitthumrong, John Frangos, Alongkorn Tongmee and Eric Meyer, Tilleke & Gibbins
an emergency basis. Those petitions must be filed with a complaint. For shorter hearings, a court may schedule an administrative hearing to further discuss and consider the written submissions of the parties. At that hearing, the court may also hear oral arguments from the parties on the issue before it. 7.3 Jury Trials in Civil Cases In Thailand, jury trials are not available in civil cases (or in criminal cases). 7.4 Rules That Govern Admission of Evidence Thai law governing the admission of evidence at trial in civil cases is the Thai Civil Procedure Code. The primary rules governing the admis- sion of evidence at trial are as follows. • Evidence must relate to the facts to be proven by any party to the case. • The party adducing evidence must submit a list of witnesses and evidence to be pre- sented in the case within a period fixed by the law. 7.5 Expert Testimony Expert testimony is permitted at trial. The parties can introduce expert testimony. The court by its own discretion can also seek expert testimony or guidance. 7.6 Extent to Which Hearings Are Open to the Public Witness hearings must be conducted openly in a court with the presence of the parties. Excep- tions are given in the following cases. • For maintaining order in the court, if the court has expelled any party from the court due to
improper behaviour, the court may continue to conduct the hearings in the absence of such party. • For the appropriateness or protection of the public interest, the court at its discretion can order that trial be conducted confidentially (ie, not open to the public). Written records of hearings (in the form of sum- maries of witness testimony and memoranda of proceedings) are not available to the public. They are only available to the parties to the case. 7.7 Level of Intervention by a Judge During a witness hearing or trial, the judge has the power to control the witness presentation. This could include, among other things, order- ing a lawyer asking the witness to focus on the issues in dispute or rejecting testimony which is not related to the issues in dispute. When considering a petition or motion that is of a general or relatively straightforward nature, the court will typically issue its judgment or deci- sion at the hearing. Examples of such petitions would include a petition to submit an additional evidence list or a petition to amend a pleading or witness statement. For petitions addressing more complex and/or potentially significant matters, the court may decide to issue its judgment at a later time. Examples of such petitions would include a peti- tion to accept the late submission of a defend- ant’s answer or a petition asking the court to dispose of a case due to the existence of an arbitration agreement between the parties. 7.8 General Timeframes for Proceedings The timeframe for proceedings would depend on a case-by-case basis. Factors that may deter- mine the case timeframe include complexity of
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