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You're havin' a laugh! Police won't be able to take your licence next year!


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15 hours ago, PunkRockerGuy said:

That is quite a severe system.  In most US states, when we are given the ticket (especially true when done by State Police), the officer indicates the law broken/infraction, the penalty or fee is listed there, and there is already a court date assigned to the ticket.  In the US, if the police officer does not show up to court (you can hazard a guess as to on what police shift you received the ticket and usual court times are 9am-10am), the judge throws out the infraction and fine. You can also argue the accuracy of radar/laser guns, as they are known to have an inherent 10% error, therefore you can always safely go 5-9% over the speed limit without a problem, and you get especially lucky if the radar has not been calibrated within the recent 30-60 days.  I have found in Thailand, not only is their alcohol breathalyzers either inaccurate or corruptly calibrated from the start, but also their highway radar cameras.  I have checked with both 2 different GPS speed devices and speedometers on all 4 of our vehicles, and I am often reading 112-115 kph on my devices, but the indicator of Sri Rat Expressway shows me over 120 kph.  Pure nonsense.  I took the police to court over a 500 baht ticket we received last year and had our Thai lawyers make the police dig out their highway calibration records.  Over 1-year without checking its accuracy ... 

What was the outcome?

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On 6/13/2018 at 9:58 AM, ezzra said:

Big percentage of the fines are not being paid as it is now, with the new rule, i would say that most of the fines will no be paid, with no deterrent to compel one to pay their fines as in other countries where you get a letter from a lawyer and a debt collection agency accumulating penalties for late payments, Thai people just don't care...

 

If they don't pay they don't get the yearly tax sticker.

 

 

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On 6/13/2018 at 3:03 PM, jvs said:

Isnt there a system in place for this already?You will not be able to

pay your tax sticker until your fine is payed.

Something better needs to be invented but so far this seems to work ok.

 

Correct

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Saw a cop on a motorbike two days ago, riding on the pavement , at night, and with no working rear light. What does that say about any system of penalties, or the worthiness of the cops here to judge anyone else. . 

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On 6/15/2018 at 5:07 AM, Pilotman said:

Saw a cop on a motorbike two days ago, riding on the pavement , at night, and with no working rear light. What does that say about any system of penalties, or the worthiness of the cops here to judge anyone else. . 

Everything. 

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On 6/14/2018 at 6:21 AM, kannot said:

What was the outcome?

I won, both times.  It was difficult and the Judge first refused to allow camera calibration dates, but in the end, the tickets and fine were dismissed.  I am trying to set a precedent against poorly calibrated and inaccurate speed cameras in Thailand.  

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23 minutes ago, PunkRockerGuy said:

I won, both times.  It was difficult and the Judge first refused to allow camera calibration dates, but in the end, the tickets and fine were dismissed.  I am trying to set a precedent against poorly calibrated and inaccurate speed cameras in Thailand.  

Well done, PRG. Now this next question will sound smarmy but is not meant that way: How much did you have to pay the lawyer, soup to nuts, in service of the cause? And how did you decide upon the lawyers you did?

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11 minutes ago, seminomadic said:

Well done, PRG. Now this next question will sound smarmy but is not meant that way: How much did you have to pay the lawyer, soup to nuts, in service of the cause? And how did you decide upon the lawyers you did?

Fortunately, I am a well-known foreign lawyer in Thailand and have worked for previous PrimeMinisters.  I have many Thai friends who are top lawyers or government lawyers.  

 

I did most of the prep work myself but had to hire a Thai lawyer for the court appearance.  I paid about 15,000 baht to 2 of my Thai lawyer friends.  I was told the normal fee would have been closer to 30K-40K.  I didn't worry about the money, as I had a point to prove.  However, I understand some or most people would not take it upon themselves as a "world citizen" to try and change Thai legal proceedings.  It was my choice to pursue the ticket after watching numerous time erroneous speed indicators on the highway.  

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5 minutes ago, PunkRockerGuy said:

Fortunately, I am a well-known foreign lawyer in Thailand and have worked for previous PrimeMinisters.  I have many Thai friends who are top lawyers or government lawyers.  

 

I did most of the prep work myself but had to hire a Thai lawyer for the court appearance.  I paid about 15,000 baht to 2 of my Thai lawyer friends.  I was told the normal fee would have been closer to 30K-40K.  I didn't worry about the money, as I had a point to prove.  However, I understand some or most people would not take it upon themselves as a "world citizen" to try and change Thai legal proceedings.  It was my choice to pursue the ticket after watching numerous time erroneous speed indicators on the highway.  

 

Thanks for answering and thanks for sharing this. By far the most useful point made on this thread... Your investment could well mean an instrument for shaping things up over here what with the imminent sprawl of the automated traffic-violation-fine-issuance-matrix, and for that, you should be thanked as well!

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4 minutes ago, seminomadic said:

 

Thanks for answering and thanks for sharing this. By far the most useful point made on this thread... Your investment could well mean an instrument for shaping things up over here what with the imminent sprawl of the automated traffic-violation-fine-issuance-matrix, and for that, you should be thanked as well!

Thanks for your kind words.  I do indeed, look at it as an investment to disrupting the automated ticket "guilty" assumption, despite the fact the police are very corrupt and purely lazy on the government side to keep their law enforcement tools updated and calibrated.  The 2 fines were only 500 baht, and my Thai wife thought I was slightly crazy for taking it to court, as we were going to sell our previous Fortuner since we had just bought a 2018 Fortuner Sportiva.  However, since I do have enough money to survive and am fortunate to have found a little financial niche in life, I just could not let them get away so easily with clearly inaccurate camera readings.

 

And, we had no problem renewing the registration when we gave the previous Fortuner to her brother for driving around Lopburi, as he is Pooyayban in his Amphur.  

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