SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jin Yeong Chung, Inhak Lee and Seung Hyeon Lee, Kim & Chang
Specialised Courts In addition, there are specialised courts, such as the Family Court, Administrative Court and Patent Court. The Family Court and the Administrative Court are the courts of the first instance level and the appeals of the decisions rendered by such specialised courts are heard by the courts of the appellate level (three level system retained). The Patent Court is treated as a court of the appellate level and reviews the decisions by the Intellectual Property Trial Board. As such, any appeal to the judgment of the Patent Court should be submitted to the Supreme Court. Similarly, disputes in which the Korea Fair Trade Commission is a party are heard at the Seoul High Court and appeals to the Seoul High Court’s judgment can be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Also, the Seoul Rehabilitation Court has been established to handle administration of bankruptcy proceedings and related disputes. 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings In principle, anyone can attend a court hearing in ses- sion. However, as an exception, a court may keep the hearings confidential for national security or public policy reasons. A copy of the court’s decision can be made available to the public. However, the personal information of the relevant parties included in the court’s decision shall be redacted before disclosing the decision to the public. The pleadings and other documents from the case are usually not available to the public. Only the parties to the dispute or others who can prove that they have a legitimate interest in the case are allowed access to these records. If information regarding privacy or trade secret is stat- ed in the document, the relevant party may ask the court to limit access to such document by submitting an application to the court. 1.4 Legal Representation in Court Under the Korean court system, except for cases where the alleged claim amount is KRW100 million or less, cases which are heard by single judge pan- els (for which cases family members or employees may act as legal representatives subject to the court’s approval) and small-claims cases where the alleged claim amount is KRW30 million or less, the legal rep-
resentative must be an attorney qualified in Korea. Foreign attorneys are not allowed to represent a party in civil actions. While anyone can attend a public court hearing, the audience has no right to participate.
2. Litigation Funding 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding
Third-party funding is not a concept that is well-known in Korean litigation and there are no laws or regula- tions on this type of arrangement as yet. However, the Attorney-at-Law Act prohibits a lawyer from becoming an assignee to any rights in dispute. 2.2 Third-Party Funding: Lawsuits See 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding . 2.3 Third-Party Funding for Plaintiff and Defendant See 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding . 2.4 Minimum and Maximum Amounts of Third-Party Funding See 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding . 2.5 Types of Costs Considered Under Third- Party Funding See 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding . 2.6 Contingency Fees Except in criminal cases, conditional or contingency fee arrangements are allowed in South Korea, and are frequently used in practice. Various legal fee struc- tures including, but not limited to, hourly rates and task-based billing can also be used. However, if the court determines that the amount of an agreed-upon legal fee is unreasonably excessive, it can reduce a legal fee otherwise payable to counsel, as per the arrangement between counsel and the cli- ent, to an amount as deemed “fair and reasonable” by the court. 2.7 Time Limit for Obtaining Third-Party Funding See 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding .
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