SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jin Yeong Chung, Inhak Lee and Seung Hyeon Lee, Kim & Chang
According to the 2024 annual audit report cir- culated by the Supreme Court, in 2024, it took about four months for single-judge panels to schedule the first hearing in civil proceedings after the complaint was filed while it took about six months for three-judge panels to sched- ule the first hearing in civil proceedings after the complaint was filed. Further, district court proceedings by single-judge panels and three- judge panels took an average of five months and 15 months, respectively, before decisions were rendered, while high court proceedings took an average of 11 months, and Supreme Court pro- ceedings took an average of one year. Specialised Courts In addition, there are specialised courts, such as the Family Court, Administrative Court and Patent Court. The Family Court and the Admin- istrative 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 sys- tem retained). The Patent Court is treated as a court of the appellate level and reviews the deci- sions by the Intellectual Property Trial Board. As such, any appeal to the judgment of the Pat- ent 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 adminis - tration of bankruptcy proceedings and related disputes. 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings In principle, anyone can attend a court hearing in session. 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 dis- closing 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 stated 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 cas- es where the alleged claim amount is KRW100 million or less, cases which are heard by single judge panels (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 representative must be an attorney qualified in Korea. Foreign attor- neys 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 regulations on this type of arrangement as yet. However, the Attorney-at-Law Act prohib- its a lawyer from becoming an assignee to any rights in dispute.
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