Section 42: Timing of civil and criminal judgments
Statutory text (Thai original)
ในการพิจารณาคดีแพ่ง ถ้าพยานหลักฐานที่นำสืบแล้วในคดีอาญายังไม่เพียงพอ ศาลจะเรียกพยานหลักฐานมาสืบเพิ่มเติมอีกก็ได้ในกรณีเช่นนั้นศาลจะพิพากษาคดีอาญาไปทีเดียว ส่วนคดีแพ่งจะพิพากษาในภายหลังก็ได้
English translation
In trying the civil case, if the evidence already adduced in the criminal case is not yet sufficient, the court may summon further evidence to be taken. In such a case, the court may render judgment in the criminal case at once, and render judgment in the civil case afterwards.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 42 sits in Title 2 of Book 1, on civil actions connected with criminal cases. It gives the trial court two practical tools: it may take additional evidence where the record built for the criminal charge does not settle the civil issues, and it may split the timing of the two judgments, deciding guilt first and quantum of civil liability later. Read together with section 46, the design is that the civil part follows the facts found in the criminal judgment, so deciding the criminal case first is proper rather than a defect.
Why this matters in practice
For a claimant, the takeaway is that a verdict of guilt does not automatically end the money side of your case: the court may keep the civil part open to hear evidence on the value of your loss. Because the criminal finding drives the civil outcome, the strength of the prosecution's evidence matters to your compensation. If you are unsure how a joined civil claim will be timed, it is worth mapping the sequence before trial, and a short session on what to know before you go to court in Thailand can help set expectations.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 5106/2538 (1995)
Sections 42 and 46 are designed so the civil part follows the facts found in the criminal judgment; deciding the criminal case first, without waiting for the civil result, is lawful.
The Supreme Court held that no law requires the civil part to be tried and decided before the criminal part. Sections 42 and 46 contemplate the civil case waiting for and then following the criminal result, so a trial court that entered the criminal judgment first, without hearing the civil result, acted properly.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 1322/2511 (1968)
In a civil case connected with a criminal one, the court may separate the two, decide the criminal case at once and the civil later; withdrawal of the criminal charge does not extinguish the civil part.
Applying Section 42, the court confirmed its power to sever the criminal and civil parts and to give the criminal judgment at once while deciding the civil claim later. It followed that the plaintiff's withdrawal of the criminal charge did not cause the connected civil claim to lapse.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 5 Supreme Court decisions (1949 to 1995)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5106/2538 (1995)
- Decision 1291/2535 (1992)
- Decision 4785/2534 (1991)
- Decision 1322/2511 (1968)
- Decision 51/2492 (1949)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Can a Thai court decide the criminal case before the civil claim?
Yes. Under Section 42 the court may render the criminal judgment first and rule on the connected civil claim afterwards. No law requires the civil part to be decided first.
If the criminal charge is withdrawn, does the civil claim end too?
Not necessarily. Because the court may separate the two, withdrawing the criminal charge does not automatically extinguish the connected civil claim.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 42 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 42. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-42/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 42 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-42/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-42/"><p>In trying the civil case, if the evidence already adduced in the criminal case is not yet sufficient, the court may summon further evidence to be taken. In such a case, the court may render judgment in the criminal case at once, and render judgment…</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 42 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-42/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.