Section 258: Civil Procedure Rules on Litigation Costs

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 7571/2560 (2017)

   Section 258 applies the Civil Procedure Code rules on litigation costs to criminal cases mutatis mutandis. Under CPC section 149 paragraph 1 an attorney's fee is a litigation cost and not a court fee, and CPC section 167 paragraph 1 requires the court to deal with litigation costs in its judgment. The bar in section 253 paragraph 1 on charging a fee, in a case where the public prosecutor is plaintiff and the victim has applied for compensation, therefore does not prevent the trial court from ordering the defendant to pay the victim's attorney's fee. The point concerns public order, so the Supreme Court may decide it of its own motion under section 195 paragraph 2 read with section 225.

   The victim applied in the criminal case for 100,000 baht in compensation for injury. The trial court awarded compensation and ordered the first defendant to pay her 4,000 baht in attorney's fees. The Court of Appeal Region 8 set that part aside, reasoning that section 253 paragraph 1 forbids charging a fee in a case where the public prosecutor is plaintiff and the victim has applied for compensation. The Supreme Court disagreed. Section 258 brings in the Civil Procedure Code rules on litigation costs, CPC section 149 paragraph 1 classes an attorney's fee as a litigation cost rather than a court fee, and CPC section 167 paragraph 1 requires the court to rule on litigation costs in its judgment. Since the victim had instructed counsel who conducted the civil part of the proceedings, the trial court had power to fix the attorney's fee. Being a question of public order the Supreme Court decided the point although no party had raised it on final appeal, and it restored the trial court's order.

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