Getting the Deal Through has published a multi-jurisdictional guide to product liability, covering 33 jurisdictions worldwide. The Thailand chapter, updated for 2012, is in a Q&A format, and has been written by Michael Ramirez, consultant in Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution department. The chapter provides an update on the Product Liability Act, how its provisions are interpreted in practice, and the extent to which it is fulfilling the aims for which it was enacted. Specifically, the chapter covers the following:

• A brief introduction to the civil litigation system, the courts, judges and juries, pleadings, timings, summons, pre-filing requirements, amending and adding claims, and the basic structure of a trial.
• Evidentiary issues and damages, the nature of pre-trial preservation, disclosure of documents, general rules on evidence, whether and how the courts appoint experts, and alternatives to the lack of pre-trial discovery in Thailand.
• Damages available, under contractual and tortuous injury, for product liability claimants particularly after the implementation of the Consumer Case Procedure Act in August 2008 (which now includes mental damages, for example).
• Litigation fees, funding, legal aid, third-party funding, and the permissibility of contingency fees.
• Sources of law governing product liability, including statutes, traditional theories of liability (such as negligence under the Civil and Commercial Code and strict liability), consumer legislation, criminal law (such as the Hazardous Substance Act 1992), and the burden of proof for these areas of law.
• Limitations periods applicable, the types of defenses available (such as compliance with standards or requirements, the fact that injury could not have been prevented even with due care, that injury was not the proximate cause or was unforeseeable, etc.), and the law on appeals.
• Jurisdictional analysis which covers milestones, trends, the level of consumerism and  consumer knowledge in Thailand, the status of product liability law, its development, and a characterization of its maturity.

Getting the Deal Through – Product Liability is published by Law Business Research, and takes an informative approach, while also providing concise analysis of key areas of the law for corporate counsel and legal practitioners around the world.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through – Product Liabilty 2012 (published in July 2012; contributing editors: Harvey L Kaplan and Gregory L Fowler of Shook, Hardy and Bacon LLP). For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.