Thai courts handled heavy workload last year

Thai courts took on around 1.82 million cases for deliberation and ruling last year, Office of the Judiciary secretary-general Sarawut Benjakul said on Tuesday.
The Justice Court system completed 1.5 million cases out of the 1.74 million it accepted, while the Appeals Court finished 49,617 cases out of a total of 56,634.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, finished some 10,000 cases out of the 17,202 it took on for deliberation and ruling.
At the same time, the Civil Court managed to get 296,405 of its 817,467 cases resolved by negotiations between the parties, he said.
Sarawut said the courts had applied new technology, including e-filing, to help manage cases while allowing citizens to access the justice process at a lower cost.
However, no conclusion has yet been reached on the idea to set up a Court Marshal. 
The matter, he added, was currently with the courts’ administrative committee, and Cabinet approval and legal enactment would be required for the idea to be implemented.
In regard to court authority to file cases for contempt, he explained that the courts already had such authority, but refrained using it unless absolutely necessary. 
As such matters were criminal cases, anyone learning about a contempt of court could file a complaint to the police for the courts to consider, the secretary-general said.