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ResourcesFamily LawDivorceIssues Involving Child Custody in Thailand

Issues Involving Child Custody in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, we're going to be discussing child custody as sort of a knock-on effect with respect to family law matters and divorce matters here in the Kingdom of Thailand. Sometimes you have issues involving child custody. As noted in a previous video on this channel, there were issues associated with legitimacy of children born in the Kingdom of Thailand so if a child is not born within so-called wedlock of the parents and there is no so called common-law marriage in the Thai sort of jurisprudence, if the child is not born within so called wedlock then there can be issues associated with legitimacy.

I recommend checking out that video specifically to hear discussion on how the legitimization process works as legitimacy can have a bearing on child custody matters. So for details on that, I suggest checking out that other channel. With respect to here. Basically, it's just kind of an overview for those looking at understanding this topic especially from a Thai-foreigner marriage perspective.

So basically, we have a Thai spouse and a foreign spouse. How is the foreign spouse going to deal with child custody matters? Well, from just sort of an outsider's perspective, having Thai attorneys in our office we deal with family law matters on relatively routine basis. I can say that from my perspective, the courts are very even-handed in how they deal with child custody matters notwithstanding the fact a foreign national may be involved. They tend to look at things extremely equitably with respect to that issue notwithstanding the foreigner’s status in the Kingdom.

A major issue often sort of crops up with respect to a parent's ability to financially support the child. Again very similar to anything, most of these proceedings are actually quite similar to family law proceedings that you would see say, in the United States or in the Commonwealth or in the common law countries in a Western sort of context very, very similar. Basically, they're looking at you know trying to make a determination as to what’s the best interest of a child, not necessarily what's in the best interest of any particular parent. They're also trying to operate equitably where both of the parents you know want to be involved in the child's life. The courts are going to try to go ahead and create a situation whereby that child's going to be able to enjoy the company of each of those parents on an equal footing as possible.

That being stated, there are issues associated with foreigners who are undergoing the process of adjudicating child custody here in Thailand because foreign nationals don't understand the Thai legal system. And that's probably compounded by the fact that most foreigners are not going to be overly fluent in Thai especially to the point of being able to be sorted, for lack of a better term, legally fluent in Thai. And in fact, many Thais are lay people with respect to legal principles and legal jurisprudence and sort of legal vocabulary. So notwithstanding the fact that an individual is a foreigner, it's already a good idea to go ahead and hire professional assistance to go ahead and assist with the adjudication of child custody but also compounding that being able to retain the services of a professional firm that can go ahead and provide sort of a liaison with respect to understanding from a linguistic standpoint. Exactly what's going on in the sort of finer details of the adjudication can be extremely beneficial to those who have to undertake this process.