EXPAT tourists who find themselves in trouble are likely to gain a better deal under a new scheme outlined today by the Chief Justice of Phuket, Varangkana Sucharitakul.

Passports are likely to be returned in future and people charged with minor offences will be able to travel home - provided they mediate a quick settlement, or deposit a substantial bail sum to ensure their return.

The two alternatives should help to avoid more cases like that of Simon Burrowes, the British tourist who was trapped on Phuket for three months after swearing at the Immigration counter at Phuket airport on his way home from a holiday.

It would also apply in the case of Annice Smoel, who wanted to return to her young daughters in Australia but could not because she had been accused of stealing a beer mat at a Patong bar.

Chief Justice Varangkana has suggested that the system will work with the help of local consuls and envoys, who should be made aware as a matter of course of all cases involving expats accused of crimes.

''Like most other countries, we want to retain one law for everyone, so a special court for tourists is not going to be a possibility,'' she said today.

Since being promoted to the island's top judicial position in April, Chief Justice Varangkana has implemented a host of changes designed to make justice on Phuket work more swiftly and efficiently.

Her plan for providing help to tourists through court officials with special training should end the heartache for tourists who stray while on holiday.

In the past, as in the Burrowes case, tourists have lost jobs or suffered unwarranted punlishment for silly misdemeanors. In many cases, with passports impounded, the unreasonable financial penalties have included drawn-out accommodation costs and additional fares as relatives or lawyers or both fly in to provide assistance.

But there would still be limits. People caught with a small quantity of an illegal drug might be allowed to fly home, she said. Those caught selling drugs to others would not.

The breakthrough idea to solve an issue that has damaged the image of Thailand's tourism this year especially is another victory for Chief Justice Varangkana's common sense approach to implementing the law.

Her mediation scheme, enlarged from the concept of a predecessor, has already won several awards and taken the pressure off Phuket's court system. It has also eased the burden on the island's overcrowded jail.

Phuket now mediates more cases than any other jurisdiction in Thailand, with surprising success. Because of the mixed nature of Phuket, expats are involved in many of the disputes.

Hundreds of civil cases each month are now being settled by a system that has two mediators listen in as many as four rooms at once to all participants, and offer potential solutions.

''We will usually get everyone together,'' she said. ''Some cases are simple, others take several meetings and a lot of consideration by the parties involved.''

There is no cost. Chief Justice Varangkana is especially pleased with a case that went as high as a case can, to Thailand's Supreme Court. The dispute, between members of a family over land on Phuket, was resolved in the traditional manner, with the court ruling in favor of one party.

Rather than have a winner and a loser in a dispute that had festered within the family for 15 years, Chief Justice Varangkana sat down with both parties. Within three hours, the land had been amicably divided.

''Mediation answers many problems within the law because it reduces the number of losers and saves time and money for the court system,'' she said.

The statistics are quite remarkable, with 394 cases out of a total of 423 civil disagreements being mediated in August, a 98 percent success rate.

The sums involved are also quite staggering. The 208 civil cases that went to mediation on Phuket in October involved 119 million baht. The 105 cases in September involved 345 million baht.

Criminal cases involving attempts at mediation are relatively rare, with only 169 for the year so far, with a two-thirds success rate.

Given a little more time, perhaps the chief justice will improve that settlement statistic, too.