Transcript of the above video:

The title of this video might not be as self-evident as some of our other titles in some of our videos. Long story short, we get a lot of correspondence and we are happy to talk to folks. 

First off, sometimes we send out quotations and people don't want to retain us, they don't want to use our services, that's fine. If you don't want to do that, we don't have any problem if you just don't respond. Oftentimes the responses we get back in my opinion are a little bit well, it's the old, what was it Thumper said in the movie Bambi, where he said "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all or whatever." I kind of think that from time to time. 

We recently had an inquiry, somebody was asking us about assistance with a Will here in Thailand and we sent him a quote and this person sent back, quoting directly: "Thank you for the quote, but I nearly fell out of my chair in dismay. I shudder at the thought of how much a complex Will would cost. I will not be proceeding with you." Well fair enough, but this notion that in an international context where this person we are dealing with is not a Thai National; they are a person from another country; they have legal issues arising in other jurisdictions; they may have issues associated with their Will that may involve multiple jurisdictions, there's nothing in an international legal context that could be described as the opposite of “complex”. Complex is where you begin. You are already at a level of complexity where you are dealing with multiple jurisdictions and you are operating in an international context; that's where you are starting from.

So again, I am not really making this video so much to be condescending or look down on somebody to be disdainful or something, it's more to provide some insight into the notion that "hey, the starting point is complexity when you are talking about legal work, again overseas if you are living abroad as an expat or in an international context just generally. Where you get two jurisdictions, let alone more than that, you have a level of legal complexity that you need expert advice and you need expert assistance on because just by its very nature, it is just not something like "oh I'm living in the same place where all my property has always been and where I have always lived." Yeah, maybe there is a level of simplicity associated with that but where you are a transplant, you may have assets transplanted into other jurisdictions that may touch upon prior jurisdictions, you yourself have assets in multiple jurisdictions or you may be living in multiple jurisdictions or and more importantly you may have multi-jurisdictional Court matters that may arise in the aftermath of living, after you are deceased. So you may pass away and you may have assets in one place, you may have been physically present in another and that can have a tremendous bearing on how the case is going to proceed, how the case is going to process and also how an instrument should be drafted. All of this is something that we as professionals and specifically for example a Thai Will, the Thai Attorneys here in our office, that is something that they are going to have to take into account when drafting any kind of instrument. For this reason there is going to be further resources expended as a result of that and that is going to result in further costs. 

But the thing to take away from this video is the default position, your starting position when you are dealing with any legal matter in a jurisdiction that you're not from, that you are a transplant to, complexity is the starting point.