Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question: "Do Thai contracts need to be in Thai?" and the short answer to that is No. Again it's going to be circumstantially dependent, sometimes Yes, but if you are talking about just kind of a Service Contract like a standard "I'm hiring this company to provide computer software services for the forthcoming 12 months", does that agreement have to be in Thai? The answer to that question is probably not, again it is circumstantially dependent but rule of thumb is probably not. It is probably a good idea that it is Thai anyway and the reason for this is it is going to end up in Thai because the Courts are going to want to translate it into Thai and then that translation is going to be what they use to determine not only the terms of the contract but who is owed what; who is in breach; who has some damages etc.

So my opinion, usually when we draft contracts here in our office, or other agreements for that matter, prenuptial agreements for example, we generally draft them in Thai and English simultaneously so they are both sitting right there and those terms, we keep them aligned when we are drafting things. I usually assist certain of the Attorneys here in the office if they have issues with sort of English legalese but on the Thai side I mean obviously they are the experts so yeah oftentimes while you don't need a contract to be in the Thai language to necessarily be enforceable in Thailand, my opinion you want it in Thai as well as perhaps English or any other language because at the end of the day, you really don't want them sort of translating it and essentially interpreting the terms on the fly. You want that all hammered out at the outset when you draft the instrument so that everybody knows where everybody stands and you have got it written down there black and white in Thai so that if a dispute does arise the Thai Courts will read what was initially drafted.