[Exclusive] Supreme Court to Reconsider '10-Year' Judge Appointment Criteria

- Strengthened to "10 years" by 2026, "Difficult to form new panels and transfer personnel"
- Gathering expert opinions on 'appropriate tenure'... Expanding discussions on 'dual appointment methods'

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] It has been confirmed that the Supreme Court has begun discussions to readjust the 'years of legal experience' that serve as the standard for appointing judges. Currently, only those with at least 5 years of legal experience as lawyers or prosecutors can become judges. However, this standard is set to be strengthened to 7 years in 2022 and 10 years in 2026. The Supreme Court believes that if the standard increases to 10 years, there will be problems in the supply of new judges, and has started discussions to reduce this.

According to the legal community on the 6th, the Supreme Court's Judicial Administration Office has decided to gather expert opinions on the 'appropriate years of legal service for judicial appointments.'

As of this year, general judges require 5 years of legal experience, while specialized judges need more than 20 years. With the introduction of the 'unified legal profession' system, which appoints only experienced legal professionals as judges, the process of appointing judges immediately after completing the Judicial Research and Training Institute, which ended with the 2013 graduates (42nd class), has disappeared. At that time, the amended Court Organization Act strengthened the experience requirements to 7 years in 2022 and 10 years in 2026. The intention was to increase the reliability of judges by raising the appointment standards.

However, about two years before the 2022 increase to 7 years, concerns have arisen within the judiciary. If the standard increases to a maximum of 10 years, it could cause disruptions not only in appointing new judges but also in forming collegiate panels and personnel transfers. This directly leads to a decline in the quality of judicial services provided to the public. Due to a shortage of judges, there is a high possibility of increased cases of 'poor trials' and 'delayed trials,' causing harm to litigants.

Therefore, the Supreme Court plans to hear opinions on the direction of amendments to the current Court Organization Act from legal professionals such as law school and law faculty professors, lawyers, judges, and prosecutors. The goal is to reassess the appropriateness of the 10-year standard and derive an empirical necessary period of experience to be used in future legislative amendments.

Within the legal community, a plan to unify the minimum experience requirement to 7 years is reportedly being discussed. Additionally, while keeping the provisions strengthening the requirement to 7 and 10 years intact, there is also discussion about a 'dual appointment system' that separately selects younger judges with around 5 years of experience.

The Supreme Court expects that after the standard changes to 10 years in 2026, the number of applicants for judgeships will sharply decline. This is because lawyers or prosecutors with more than 10 years of experience have often already established stable positions in their respective fields. According to internal data from the Judicial Administration Office, among 199 newly appointed experienced judges (with 5 years of legal experience) from 2013 to 2019, only 20 had more than 10 years of experience. The remaining 90% were filled by those with 5 to 9 years of legal experience.

The recent increase in cases of current prosecutors and lawyers from large law firms transitioning to judges aligns with this trend. Among the 155 general legal experience judge appointees this year, 15 are current prosecutors, marking a record high, and 12 are from Kim & Chang, the largest law firm in Korea. All of them are relatively young legal professionals with 5 to 6 years of experience. A lawyer in Seocho-dong commented, "Since from the year after next, 7 or more years of experience will be required to become a judge, there will likely be many cases of young lawyers and prosecutors transitioning to judges until the standard changes to 10 years in 2026."

A court official stated, "Since the system was introduced to ensure that judges with sufficient social experience and maturity can preside over trials, and it is analyzed that this may cause disruptions in court operations, it is expected that this discussion will address the proper direction for amending the Court Organization Act, including the appropriate years of legal service."

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