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Business disputes and inspections

Foreign-owned businesses in Thailand are almost always structured less tidily than the paperwork suggests: nominee partners, Thai-language contracts, verbal understandings, and assets registered to someone other than the person who paid for them. A dispute exposes all of it at once.

What clients bring us

  • Conflict with a Thai partner or nominee shareholder, including attempts to squeeze out the foreign participant.
  • Lease disputes: premises, villas, land, early termination, withheld deposits.
  • Breach of construction and supply contracts, unfinished works, defects.
  • Debt recovery, including debtors who have simply stopped replying.
  • Employment disputes and work permit questions.
  • Inspections by immigration, the labour department, the revenue department and licensing bodies.
  • Criminal complaints filed by the other side as leverage in a commercial dispute, including defamation and fraud allegations.
  • Any other commercial matter: if your situation is not on this list, that does not mean we do not handle it. Call and describe it.

What usually surfaces on day one

That the operative version of the contract is the Thai one, and it differs from the English text the client signed.

That the asset belongs to a company in which the foreign owner holds fewer votes than assumed.

That the limitation period on part of the claim is already half spent.

That messenger history is evidence, and needs to be preserved properly rather than summarised.

That a police complaint has been filed in parallel, and the client is the last to hear about it.

How we run a dispute

  1. Position review

    Documents, correspondence, corporate structure, real deadlines. Only then an assessment of prospects.

  2. Pre-action

    Demand letter and negotiation. A large share of commercial disputes in Thailand close here, and almost always more cheaply than in court.

  3. Protective measures

    Steps that stop the other side moving assets while the matter runs.

  4. Court

    Pleadings, representation, witness work and expert evidence.

  5. Enforcement

    A judgment is not yet money in the account, and we run the matter through to the money: tracing assets, protective measures, enforcement proceedings. We plan this stage from the outset, not after the win.

Inspections and orders

An inspection is a procedure with limits. Inspectors need grounds, powers and a proper record, and all of that can be checked on the spot. Most of the damage comes not from the inspection itself but from explanations signed in a hurry.

We attend inspections, take part in the paperwork, prepare objections to orders and appeal decisions.

The criminal lever

Commercial disputes in Thailand are frequently accompanied by a police complaint — fraud, breach of trust, defamation. Foreign owners find this surprising: they expected civil proceedings and received a summons.

Such matters are run on both fronts at once. Running only one loses the other.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreigner bring proceedings in Thailand?
Yes. A foreign national may sue and be sued in the Thai courts. Proceedings run in Thai, representation is by a licensed Thai attorney, and documents are filed with certified translations.
How long does a commercial dispute take?
First instance typically six to eighteen months, longer on appeal. Pre-action settlement takes weeks. That is why we give a timeline together with the assessment: a quick settlement is sometimes worth more than a case won two years later.
My contract is in English only. Is it valid?
An English-language contract can be effective, but the court works from the Thai version or a certified translation, and discrepancies between versions become part of the dispute. Where a signed Thai version exists, that is where the analysis starts.
My partner refuses to hand back the company.
Much depends on the corporate record: articles, shareholdings, signatures, minutes. Our first step is to pull the company file and compare it with what the client believes the structure to be. Discrepancies are more common than anyone would like.
A fraud complaint has been filed over a debt. Is that serious?
Yes. It is separate proceedings with its own timeline and consequences, including travel restrictions. It cannot be ignored on the basis that it is "only a money dispute".
Do you handle transactions as well as disputes?
Yes: counterparty and title checks, deal structure, contracts and payment supervision. It is cheaper than litigating afterwards, and we say so plainly.

Practice areas

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