SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Byung Chang Lee, DR & AJU LLC
It is up to the judge whether or not to wait and see regarding the result through criminal pros - ecution or a criminal hearing, and generally civil court judges have a tendency to wait for any criminal result before deciding the civil claim case. Facts and evidence admitted in the relevant criminal cases are admissible in civil cases unless there are special circumstances to rule them out. 2.6 Judgment Without Trial Default Judgment There is a sort of default judgment procedure in Korea where a defendant does not submit an answer within 30 days after the service date of complaint; however, it is up to the judge whether the court renders a default judgment or not. Gen - erally, the judge waits for the filing of the answer, and, even where the default judgment date is appointed, if the defendant files an answer before the designated judgment date, the civil procedure will resume without the default judg - ment. Application for a Payment Order If the claimant does not want a full trial, then there is the option of application for a payment order, which is a simple litigation procedure through the court’s payment order. When the claimant files an application for a payment order with some supporting evidence with the court, the court reviews the application and issues a payment order requesting the debtor to pay the claim amount without further requesting addi - tional evidence. The debtor has the option to accept the payment order served, or to file an objection within two weeks after the service date of the payment order.
If the debtor accepts the payment order and does not file an objection within two weeks, the payment order will be final and enforce - able; therefore, the creditor can enforce on the debtor’s assets. However, if the debtor files an objection, there will be a full trial hearing. This is a simple and expedited procedure to get the court’s final and enforceable order with a small amount of court fees payable, and is recom - mended for a lot of foreign entities that want to collect unpaid receivables from a Korean debtor There is no special rule or procedure for plead - ing fraud in Korea, and there is no difference between handling a fraud claim and other caus - es of action. 2.8 Claims Against “Unknown” Fraudsters In general, it is not possible to bring a civil claim with unknown fraudsters, mainly because the court needs to serve the civil complaint to the designated address in the complaint. It is per - missible to add another defendant or to change the name of the defendant during the pend - ing procedure, provided that it is certain that the plaintiff designated the wrong name of the defendant or made a mistake in filing prepara - tion. through expedited procedures. 2.7 Rules for Pleading Fraud However, it is not impossible to bring a crimi - nal claim with unknown fraudsters. Contrary to a civil claim, it is up to the relevant investigation authorities to investigate criminal matters. 2.9 Compelling Witnesses to Give Evidence It is up to the judge whether to compel witnesses to attend an examination hearing. If a witness does not attend the hearing, and unless they
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