G54, on 2009-03-19 00:00:32, said:
Maizefarmer, on 2009-03-19 01:05:09, said:
G54, on 2009-03-18 18:46:28, said:
Sigh, here we go.
I have been given official confirmation that I have received Judgement in my favour after a court hearing into money owed to me by a certain Thai lady. The case took about 5 months with this new lawyer (he has worked on this for free).
The document gives me 10 years to check on any assets she now has or acquires in the next 10 years. That in itself is OK. The problem is, the document is not currently in my name. It is in the name of a Thai friend. I am unsure if this is a good idea. Friendships can be fickle at times.
Would I be better off having this document in my name or are the authorities liable to baulk at the idea of a foreigner asking into the assets of a Thai?
Anyone been in this situation before or who knows what way is best to proceed from now?
TIA
I have been given official confirmation that I have received Judgement in my favour after a court hearing into money owed to me by a certain Thai lady. The case took about 5 months with this new lawyer (he has worked on this for free).
The document gives me 10 years to check on any assets she now has or acquires in the next 10 years. That in itself is OK. The problem is, the document is not currently in my name. It is in the name of a Thai friend. I am unsure if this is a good idea. Friendships can be fickle at times.
Would I be better off having this document in my name or are the authorities liable to baulk at the idea of a foreigner asking into the assets of a Thai?
Anyone been in this situation before or who knows what way is best to proceed from now?
TIA
So.... strictly/legalling speaking you have NO judgement in your favour - there is a judgement in favour of a 3rd party with respect to YOUR claim. Have I understaood this correctly (not withstanding of course that its clear what you mean i.e. what is owed is actually owed to you).
Just how is it this came about? - was it because you feared that been an ex-pat the court would possibly then be biased and as a result not issue a judgement "in your favour" so to speak? Personaly, I dont think it would have made any differance, but that comment is of course against the background of not knowing all the circumstances (I can guess part of the background!).
And what is the total value you are hoping to recover?
A note about property/land: although you cannot own land, you can as a foreigner secure/freeze a debtors land assets in your favour. I know this because I have done it myself. The short of it was that the judgement was regsitered against the land which meant anyone buying the debtors land had to pay me the purchase price to me, and not them. It took some years to sell, but I was happy to wait as it was secured and ultimately the capital came back - with interest on top. So, if land is any part of her asset holding - get the judgement regsistered against the land asap.
Other than that, keep in mind the bad thing about asset orders/judgements: they are not worth the paper they are written on if there is no asset!
The judgement from the court itself is in my name. I took the case to court via the solicitor. The proxy was only to be used if I was not going to be here for any of the hearings.
The solicitor has issued a document using my friends name to use at the various offices - that is what I am uncertain about. I feel it should be in my name but if it smoothes out any problems with officials, then I would accept that.
The total amount is a little over 100,000 Baht. That in itself is not a lot of money but I decided to go ahead with the case because of the deception involved. That rankled + the solicitor also did not like what was done so that is why he has worked for free.
The judgement itself gives me the right to take / seize any assets she has or will have in the next 10 years in respect of the money owed. That covers cars, m/c, land or other property which can be proven to be registered in her name.
I do understand about the paper being worthless in respect of her not having any assets. On the other hand it is good to know she knows the judgement is there and for the next 10 years. I have received a phone call tonight regarding the judgement from someone who dislikes the lady very much and they want to meet me to talk about it. I do not know if this will turn out to be a positive meeting or not, but it also shows word has got out that I have the judgement. Maybe that will not sit well with the lady in question
And, thanks for the interesting reply
The document with the Thai person's name on it sounds to me like a power of attorney. Depending on how the Power of attorney is written, and how long it lasts it would appear to me to be a perfectly good way of doing the job using a Thai person.
The Thing you need to be careful of is that the power-of-attorney has a limitation on it in terms of time, but no limitation on it in terms of what it can be used for, including acting on the orders of the court on your behalf in terms of the original agreement that was taken to court.
For example if the loan was to purchase a motor car, and the monies remain unpaid, then the Power of attorney needs to say that you give the assignee all necessary powers to act in your name in any issues surrounding the motor car, including acting on your behalf in executing the court's orders. If this is the case then you have a perfectly excellent way of having your Thai friend act for you.
