Judicial Policy Institute Proposes Abolishing Judgment Viewing Fees and Disclosing Corporate Names in Full

"Threshold for Judgment Document Disclosure System Must Be Lowered"
"Excessive Anonymization Reduces the Value of Judgment Information"

Lee Jeonghyun, Chief Judge at Changwon District Court Tongyeong Branch, presenting at the academic conference on 'Practical Issues in the Judgment Disclosure System.' Screenshot from the Judicial Policy Research Institute YouTube channel.

There has been a proposal to abolish the current online judgment viewing fee in order to guarantee the public's right to know and foster advanced industries. The suggestion also includes disclosing corporate names in full, rather than anonymizing them as is currently the practice.

On May 27, at the academic conference on 'Practical Issues in the Judgment Disclosure System' co-hosted by the Judicial Policy Research Institute and Legal Times, Lee Jeonghyun, Chief Judge at Changwon District Court Tongyeong Branch, presented on the need to lower the threshold for the current judgment disclosure system. He pointed out, "Under the current system, if you do not pay, you can only access a preview of around 1,000 characters. But from this limited preview, it's impossible to determine whether a judgment is helpful for your own case."

Accordingly, he suggested that the system should be overhauled, either by abolishing the fee altogether, introducing a monthly flat-rate subscription, or charging only for cases exceeding 100 views per month.

He also addressed the problem of excessive anonymization, which reduces the informational value of judgments. Judge Lee said, "Currently, not only individuals but also the names of corporations and organizations are all anonymized, which diminishes readability and reduces the value of judgments as data that can be used in advanced industries." He added, "Information related to corporations is not considered personal information under the Personal Information Protection Act. While the names, resident registration numbers, and financial information of individuals should be strictly protected, corporate names, business names, and business registration information should remain disclosed in full."

Judge Lee predicted, "If judgment information and datasets are utilized in advanced fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), technological innovation can be achieved in various areas, including Legal-Tech, and social and economic value can be created."

However, concerns were also raised over the expansion of judgment information disclosure. Judge Kim Jaenam of Incheon District Court explained, "Since 2019, corporate names have been anonymized because disclosing them could immediately reveal the identity of a company's representative, leading to privacy violations."

He also pointed out that abolishing the online judgment viewing fee could result in "large volumes of data being left unprotected and accessible to those seeking to misuse judgment information." He further expressed concern that, after analyzing large numbers of judgments using AI, 'forum shopping'—choosing the most favorable court jurisdiction—could become widespread.

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