Are You Prepared? New Timeframe for Thai Court Cases

Introduction

Litigation proceedings in Thailand have long been known to be a time-consuming process, and it is typically difficult for the parties to predict what will happen next and when it will happen. In order to expedite the efficiency of judicial administration in Thailand and provide a clearer timeframe of court cases, the Act on the Timeframe of Judicial Proceedings (“Act“) was enacted on 25 October 2022 and has recently become effective on 23 January 2023. To implement the Act, judicial authorities under the Act¹ including the Courts of Justice, the Administrative Courts, and the Constitutional Court recently issued their regulations outlining the timeframe of judicial proceedings.

We summarize below the high-level information for the relevant timeframe as released by the competent courts.

It is worth noting that the Act will apply to both matters that are being processed and ones that will be brought after the Act takes effect. Please refer to the direct announcements of each relevant court for more detailed information.

Court of Justice

The President of the Supreme Court issued a Judicial Regulation on the Timeframe for Consideration of Litigation Cases of the Court of Justice B.E. 2566 (2023) on 18 January 2023², outlining the timeframe of each step of the proceedings of the Court of Justice (“Judicial Regulation“), and it  applies to all Thai courts of justice including all the specialized courts.³ According to the Judicial Regulation, prospective timeframes of proceedings shall depend on the classification of the types of cases prescribed for each level of the courts.⁴

1. First Instance Court

There are three types of case classification (which are mainly based on the level of complication and time consumed) comprising of:

1. Special Management Case, means a case with no complications that has the tendency to be finalized within one hearing, or conducts document submission instead of witness examination; g., a criminal case where the defendant admitted the charge as claimed by the plaintiff or a consumer case;
2. Ordinary Case, means a case that requires witness examination and the proceedings cannot be completed expeditiously; and
3. Extraordinary Case, means a complicated case which is unable to arrange back-to-back witness examination hearings and requires scheduling two to four separate sessions for witness examination.

2. Appeal Court

This court is divided into two groups; (1) Appeal Court which generally has jurisdiction over all cases decided by all First Instance Courts located in Bangkok; and (2) Regional Appeal Court which has jurisdiction over all cases decided by all First Instance Courts in regional areas outside Bangkok and the Appeal Court for Specialized Case (e.g., bankruptcy case, tax case, labor case).

a. Appeal Court

No special classification of type of cases.

b. Regional Appeal Court and Appeal Court for Specialized Cases

There are four types of cases classified (which are mainly based on the urgency of the case and the level of complication) comprising of:

1. Special Urgent Case, means a case with no complications and can be adjudicated expeditiously, or other cases prescribed by the President of those Appeal Courts e.g., a criminal case whose only disputed issue relates to discretion for the degree of punishment, or a civil case where the dispute is related to non-complicated legal issues;
2. Urgent Case, means a case that contains some complicated disputed issues, but can be adjudicated expeditiously or other cases prescribed by the President of those Appeal Courts e.g. an ex-parte civil case which has no objector, or a criminal case where the First Instance Court sentenced the defendant to imprisonment for not more than two years and the defendant is being detained;
3. Special Case, means a case which is required to be admitted by the President of those Appeal Courts for being a Special Case, or a public interest litigation case; and
4. General Case or Normal Case, simply means a case that does not fall under items i, ii, or iii above.

3. Supreme Court

There is no special classification of the type of cases. The general timeframe for both civil and criminal cases is one year from the date of receipt of the case files from the First Instance Court until the Supreme Court judgment/order is rendered. However, there are a few exceptions as prescribed in the Judicial Regulation.

The timeframe of relevant steps of the proceedings for the Court of Justice are summarized below:

[Table 1]

Timeframe of the Court of Justice

Timeframe of the Court of Justice

Remarks: Timeframes prescribed in the Judicial Regulation are not decisive and could be prolonged subject to: (i) procedural activities e.g., case transfer or arrangements made by the parties to the case, for example, mediation discussion or suspending the proceedings pending the outcome of other cases; or (ii) characteristics or circumstances of the case e.g., number of witnesses and evidence, as well as the workload of the individual judge.

Administrative Court

On 23 January 2023, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court issued the Supreme Administrative Court’s Regulation on the Timeframe for Consideration of Administrative Court Litigation Case B.E. 2566 (2023) to outline the timeframe for each step of the Administrative Court’s proceedings (“SAC Regulation”). The Administrative Court and the Supreme Administrative Court will be subject to SAC Regulation.

Unlike the Court of Justice, the prospective timeframe for administrative cases primarily depends on the number of cases assigned to the individual judge in charge. That said, if the individual judge handles multiple cases, an additional period of time will be assigned.

The relevant timeframes of each step of the Administrative Court are as follows:

[Table 2]

Timeframe of the Administrative Court

Constitutional Court

On 23 January 2023, the Constitutional Court also released the Regulation on Timeframe for Consideration of Litigation Case of the Constitutional Court B.E. 2566 (2023), which stipulated that all cases under jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court must be completed within one year of acceptance.

¹ Judicial authorities include the Office of the Attorney General, the Royal Thai Police, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), or the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Legal Execution Department (LED) etc.

² Published in the Thai Royal Gazette on 23 January 2023 and became effective on 24 January 2023.

³ e.g., the Central Bankruptcy Court, the Central Intellectual Properties and International Trade Court, the Central Taxation Court, or the Central Labor Court.

⁴ Thai Courts of Justice are classified into three levels consisting of Courts of First Instance, Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

⁵ District Court means the court with jurisdiction over civil matters of Baht 300,000 claimed amount or less, and over criminal matters involving offences punishable with imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding Baht 60,000, or both.