Supreme Court Holds Chief Judges' Meeting to Discuss Response Measures for Judicial Distortion Crime

Concerns Over "Judicial Distortion" Law and Its Impact on Judges
Support Measures for Criminal Judges and Public Defender Budget Discussed

Chief judges from courts nationwide gathered to discuss support measures for criminal judges following the introduction of the crime of judicial distortion.

Supreme Court building. Photo by Yonhap News

On April 9, the Supreme Court announced that it held a national meeting of chief judges, presided over by Ki Woojong, Deputy Chief of the National Court Administration. The agenda included discussions on support measures for criminal judges and issues regarding the budget for court-appointed attorneys. A total of 33 chief judges from courts at various levels attended the meeting.

The participants focused their first agenda item on "support measures for criminal judges" in light of the implementation of the new crime of judicial distortion. Enacted last month, this law stipulates that criminal judges who distort the application of the law may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison or face up to 10 years of disqualification. Concerns have been raised within and outside the judiciary that this could lead to an increase in complaints and accusations against judges, as well as reluctance among criminal courts to preside over certain cases.

To ensure that criminal judges can continue to perform their judicial duties without intimidation, various support measures were discussed, including: assistance with appointing defense attorneys; establishing dedicated organizations; creating manuals; and amending internal regulations to respond to unjust lawsuits.

The second agenda item addressed the "current status and response measures for the shortage of the general public defender budget." Recently, as the number of court-appointed attorney assignments has increased, delays in compensation payments have occurred due to budget shortages. The participants discussed the need to increase the budget, as well as measures such as strengthening the review of supporting documents, revising the income criteria in the "Regulations on Court-Appointed Attorneys," increasing the number of dedicated public defenders, and managing the appropriate number of monthly case assignments.

Deputy Chief Ki Woojong stated, "The judiciary must uphold the independence of trials and carry out swift and fair judgments unwaveringly as the final bastion of the rule of law," urging the chief judges to lead the changes in the frontlines of court proceedings.

During the meeting, there were also reports on key judicial administration issues. The National Court Administration shared major tasks including: improvements to the management system for long-term unresolved cases; optimization of written judgments; enhancements to summary trial procedures and trials in absentia; promotion of citizen participation trials; and the establishment of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to support trials.

The national chief judges' meeting, which brings together chief judges from courts at all levels, was abolished in 2019 during the tenure of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeongsu, but was reinstated in 2024.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.