In this article, Lawfirm Yeoam will briefly explain how a civil litigation procedure is conducted in South Korea.
1. Filing
To start a lawsuit in Korea, you must file a complaint to a court. The person filing the lawsuit is called the “plaintiff,” and the other party being sued is called the “defendant.” Filing the suit is available via online site below.
https://ecfs.scourt.go.kr/psp/index.on
The important thing to note here is that you must file the complaint to the court which has jurisdiction over the case. The court with the jurisdiction is usually the court that has jurisdiction of the defendant’s address, but it may vary depending on the type of lawsuit. The specific details are stipulated in the Civil Procedure Act (Articles 2-25), so you should check in advance before filing.
For example, when requesting money from the other party, you can file a lawsuit with the court of jurisdiction of the “plaintiff’s” address as well. When requesting the other party to transfer real estate ownership, you can file a lawsuit with the court that has jurisdiction of the “real estate’s location”. The court of jurisdiction for each address is stipulated on the court website.
https://www.scourt.go.kr/region/location/RegionSearchListAction.work
2. Delivery
When a plaintiff files a complaint with the court, the court delivers the complaint to the defendant’s address, which is written on the complaint. In order for ‘delivery’ to occur, the mailman must personally deliver the complaint to the defendant.
However, if the plaintiff does not know the defendant’s address or the defendant is not present at that address written on the complaint when delivery occurs, the court issues an ‘address correction order’ to the plaintiff.
If you receive the order, you need to take appropriate measures to secure the address. However, this is quite a technical process, so it is recommended that you seek the assistance of a lawyer.
3. Response
According to the Civil Procedure Act, the defendant must submit a response within 30 days of receiving the complaint. However, the case will not be immediately lost or suffer any particular disadvantage even if the defendant does not submit a response within 30 days,
In practice, the defendant usually submits a response stating his/her general position within 30 days, and then organize and submit the specific details in a separate document.
4. Trial
When the defendant files a response, the court sets the first trial date. The trial date is not set immediately after the defendant files a response, but is determined at the discretion of the court. According to court statistics, it takes an average of about 5 months from the time the plaintiff’s complaint is received by the court until the first trial is held.
When the trial begins, the parties must appear in court and state their arguments orally, which is called “Byeon-lon(변론)” in Korean. If a lawyer is hired, only the lawyer must appear, and the party himself does not have to appear.
The content and evidence to be argued on the day of the trial must be submitted in advance as documents before the trial. And the documents submitted in advance to prepare for a trial are called ‘preparatory documents.’ It is best to submit preparatory documents at least one week before the trial so that the court and the opposing party can sufficiently check the contents.
Notice: A party should not state new claims that were not submitted in the preparatory statement on the day of the trial.
The trial is usually very short(except witness interrogation), lasting about 5-10 minutes. There is no need to make a long and persuasive speech like you see in the movies. In civil litigation, it is important to submit documents that faithfully organize your arguments and evidence before the trial, and it is not very important what you say to the judge on the very day of the trial. On the day of the trial, it is sufficient to orally confirm the documents already submitted and answer the judge’s questions.
5. Closure
When the plaintiff and defendant submit all of their arguments and evidence, the court declares that it will end the trial and pronounce a judgment within several weeks(“closure of arguments”). After the closure of arguments, the plaintiff and defendant can no longer submit additional arguments or evidence.
In the case of simple cases, the court may hold a trial once and immediately conclude the arguments, but usually it concludes the arguments after organizing the arguments and evidence through at least 2-3 trials.
6. Judgment
The court usually sentences the judgment 1-2 months after closing arguments, and announces the date and time of the judgment in advance at the closure of arguments. Unlike the trial, the parties do not need to appear on the sentencing date.
Please note that on the sentencing date, the court only announces the conclusion (not the reasons) of the judgment. Therefore, to check the specific reasons of the judgment, you must wait until the judgment is delivered. The judgment is usually delivered within a week from the judgment date.