SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: John H Choi, Han Soon Choi, Changhun Lee and Seungjun Woo, Shin & Kim
6.3 Leniency and Settlement Agreements In principle, the MRFTA stipulates that the KFTC and its officials may not provide information or data regarding leniency applicants to others unrelated to the handling of the case. However, should the leni - ency applicant consent, or if it is necessary in order to file or carry out a lawsuit related to the case, such information or data can be provided to others. Meanwhile, in accordance with the MRFTA, the court has the authority to compel the opposing party to provide evidence regarding damages, but leniency- related materials are exempt from this requirement. A court can admit facts based on a witness statement. A witness statement can be made both orally and in writing. In principle, a witness statement is subject to cross-examination, but cross-examination is not con - ducted in exceptional cases where a witness submits a written affidavit. A court sometimes only requires a written affidavit from a witness when the case does not concern factual grounds that need to be verified through cross-examination. It is sufficient for a wit - ness to make a statement, and they do not bear the burden of providing evidence to support the authen - ticity of the statement. 7.2 Expert Witness Role and Procedure Expert witnesses are often utilised where one of the issues in a lawsuit requires special learning and expe - rience. The procedure for the expert witness state - ment is the same as for the general witness statement. The expert witness statement can be made both orally and in writing, and is subject to cross-examination in principle. A party does not need to obtain court approval to submit expert statements in writing, but they must obtain court approval if they conduct an interrogation of the expert in court or if they request an expert’s appraisal. Courts do not require experts to produce joint statements in advance of a trial indicating the areas in which they agree or disagree. 7. Witness and Expert Opinions 7.1 Witness Procedure
who is in possession of the document, their relative (or a person who used to be one), their legal guardian, or ward; or (c) documents that contain matters concerning secrets of professional duties or skills or oc - cupational secrets of a person who is obliged to keep secrets under laws and regulations, and that are not exempted from the obligation to keep secrets. • When documents other than “documents that a public official or a person who used to be one holds or is in possession of, for their public duty” are not within the scope of either b) or c) for the exceptions above, or documents that exist solely for the utility of their owners. When a party petitions for a document submission order, the court first hears the opinions of the respond - ent regarding their possession of the document, and whether they have a reason to object to the document submission. If the court determines that the document submission order petition is appropriate, the court will order the respondent to submit the document. Consequences of Refusal to Submit If a respondent refuses to submit a document without giving any of the reasons mentioned above, or if a respondent destroys or discards a document that they are required to submit, or renders it unusable for the purpose of hampering the petitioner’s use of it, the court may recognise the petitioner’s claims about the contents of the document as true. However, the court may not determine that the fact the petitioner intended to prove with the document has been instantly proved. For example, if a petitioner petitions for a document submission order to prove that a sales contract has been made, and the respondent refuses to submit a copy of the contract without any grounds, despite the court’s order for the document submission, the court may acknowledge that there was a copy of the con - tract with the written content alleged by the petitioner, but beyond that, it may not immediately acknowledge that the sales contract alleged by the petitioner has been made. 6.2 Legal Professional Privilege Privileges such as attorney-client privilege are not rec - ognised under South Korean law.
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