TAIWAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Peng-Kwang Chen, I-Ming Chen, Pamela Huang and Claudia Huang, Formosa Transnational Attorneys At Law
Adjudication Act. Examples of major commercial cases include the following. • Civil disputes between a responsible person of a company and the company arising out of con- duct of the company’s business with a claim amount exceeding TWD30 million (approximately USD925,000). • Civil disputes arising from violations of securi- ties laws, such as securities fraud, false financial reporting, failure to provide a prospectus, short- term trading and insider trading, with a claim amount exceeding TWD30 million (approximately USD925,000). • Petitions to select a temporary administrator, appoint an inspector, and dismiss the relevant per- sonnel pursuant to the Company Act for publicly traded companies. To facilitate a speedy, appropriate and professionally handled resolution of major commercial disputes, major commercial cases have only two levels of courts with jurisdiction. And as mentioned in 7.2 Case Man- agement Hearings , such cases have a more rigorous trial plan, so the trial time is usually shorter than that in general commercial cases. According to statistics published by Taiwan’s judicial branch in 2022, the average duration of proceedings in major commercial cases is about four months. Court approval is not required to settle a lawsuit. The parties may opt for “settlement in litigation” or “out- of-court settlement”. Settlement in litigation refers to settlement reached by the parties with the assistance of the court during the litigation process, while out-of- court settlement is reached by the parties in private without court’s intervention. Neither type of settlement requires court approval regarding the terms of the set- tlement. 8.2 Settlement of Lawsuits and Confidentiality While the court keeps records of settlements reached in litigation, the content of these records is confiden- tial. In the case of settlement in litigation, there is a 8. Settlement 8.1 Court Approval
public record accessible on the Judicial Yuan’s Legal Information Retrieval System stating that the matter was “settled”. No other details are disclosed to the public. 8.3 Enforcement of Settlement Agreements Where a settlement in litigation is reached, the settle- ment agreement (as recorded in court transcripts) has the same effect as a final judgment, and constitutes a writ of execution. Parties may apply to the enforce- ment courts to enforce the settlement agreement. Out-of-court settlements are not writs of execution. In other words, if a debtor fails to perform this type of settlement agreement, the creditor cannot directly apply to the court for enforcement of the agreement; instead, the creditor must first file a lawsuit and obtain a favourable judgment against the debtor. However, if the settlement agreement was notarised and meets other requirements under the Notary Act, the settle- ment agreement may constitute a writ of execution. If so, it may be enforced directly. 8.4 Setting Aside Settlement Agreements Out-of-court settlement agreements may be deemed null and void for reasons including: • incapacity of a party; • lack of intent to enter into the agreement between parties; or • violation of public order and good morals (public policy). Also, a party may revoke an out-of-court settlement agreement if: • the party was acting under a mistake; or • the party agreed to the settlement under fraud or duress. Settlement in litigation may also be deemed null and void, or be revoked by a party for the same reasons. Also, a settlement in litigation will be deemed null and void if such settlement violates procedural require- ments, such as: • either party’s lack of standing; • either party’s lack of capacity to litigate; or
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