Services / Civil and commercial litigation
Consumer cases: no fees, and the burden shifts
Consumer procedure is built so that an ordinary person can actually take on a business. The statute waives the fees and moves the burden of proof on matters a consumer has no way of knowing. Those two features change the shape of the case entirely.
No court fees
The first paragraph of section 18 of the Consumer Case Procedure Act B.E. 2551 (2008) exempts a consumer, or someone entitled to sue on their behalf, from all court fees on filing and on any step in the proceedings, though not from ultimate liability for costs. A consumer therefore does not have to put up filing fees scaled to the amount claimed, which is the wall that stops many people before they start.
The exception to the exemption
The second paragraph provides that where it appears to the court that the consumer sued without reasonable cause, claimed excessive damages, behaved improperly, took steps that delayed or were unnecessary, or where other circumstances warrant it, the court may order the exempted fees to be paid in whole or in part, and may strike the case out if the order is not obeyed. Inflating a claim is therefore not consequence-free.
The burden moves
Section 29 provides that where an issue requires proof of facts about the manufacture, assembly, design or composition of goods, the provision of a service, or any operation, and the court considers those facts to be within the particular knowledge of the party that is the business, the burden of proof on that issue falls on the business.
Why that matters so much
In an ordinary civil case the party asserting must prove, so a consumer with a defective product would have to prove the defect arose in manufacture, having no access to manufacturing information at all. Section 29 addresses that directly. In practice the consumer shows the loss and the connection, while the account of how the goods or service were produced is for the business to give.
What counts as a consumer case
Not every transaction is a consumer case. What matters is whether the relationship is between a consumer and a business. A sale between two private individuals, or a purchase made for one's own trade, may fall outside it, and filing in the wrong track costs time to correct. Classifying the case correctly at the outset is therefore always the first task.
PREPARE
What to bring
- The receipt, tax invoice or other proof of purchase
- The contract or terms of service supplied to you
- Photographs of the damage or the defect
- Your dealings with the seller or provider, kept whole
- Receipts for medical treatment or other loss already paid
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
Is a consumer case really free?
The first paragraph of section 18 waives all fees on filing and on the steps in the proceedings, but not ultimate liability for costs, and the second allows the court to order the waived fees to be paid where the suit was brought without reasonable cause or the damages claimed were excessive. Free means nothing to put up at the start, not an absence of any liability.
I bought online and what arrived was not what was advertised.
As a rule a sale between a consumer and a business falls within consumer procedure, but whether the seller is a business or a private person selling occasionally matters, because the answer differs. What to do at once is to capture the listing, the messages and photographs of what arrived, because listings are commonly taken down after a complaint.
LAW
The legislation
- Consumer Case Procedure Act B.E. 2551 (2008), sections 18 and 29
ENQUIRIES
