Dear Editor,
A lot of people are discussing in the internet, in
private and also via telephone or chats. I wanted to give another opinion
through the whole scenario. If there is a crime; like burglary and murder,
or somebody has a traffic accident, from what I investigated and also
happened to me personally, I can say I have NO bad experience. OK but many
others of you might have. The situation is sometimes not easy. We should see
the justice system of Thailand also with the eyes of Thai people. Not only
out of the eyes of foreigners. When Thai people have problems with murder,
burglary or accidents, the system works quite well. Like everywhere in the
world, the justice system is slow. But it doesn’t mean that a police officer
won’t do his or her job correctly, a judge is making bad decisions in court
or the departments in Thailand are not doing their jobs well.
Let’s take this case – a Thai woman died on her 48th
birthday through an accident sitting on the backside of a pickup truck. She
had no seatbelt fastened as this is no law here. A lorry crashed into the
pickup truck, the lady died later in the hospital after being discovered
with heavy brain injuries. As she wasn’t the driver, her husband wanted the
insurance of the lorry driver to pay for her death and the damage of the
car. She wasn’t even driving. The insurance won’t pay. The husband went to
court and after a 24 month court trial he won the case.
Let’s take this case – a person sitting in a wheelchair
has had an accident at an official international airport. Still on Thai
ground, but in the international sector before the passport control, let’s
say between plane and gateway. The wheelchair driver had massive health
trouble, nearly passed away because of bad care of the people working for
the airline. He was a foreigner by the way. He asked for reimbursement for
health costs and reparation due to a loss of life quality. After writing to
the airline, they did not answer anymore the letter in which an amount was
asked for to settle outside the court. There was not even a lawyer involved
in the case.
And finally we take a third case to consider. Let’s say
you buy a product which needs to have the international warranty but the
company which sold it does not want to pay the money for it, or even replace
it.
There is a special department of the Thai government
taking care or dealing with cases like these mentioned. People complain that
the Thai justice system won’t get involved in civil cases, this is not true.
There is a consumer protection department. There is a department that offers
public lawyers for those who cannot afford them, however most people don’t
know that these departments exist.
D.Weeber-Arayatumsopon
