Kyungsillyeon: "Judgment Basis Must Be Stated Even in Small Claims Under 30 Million Won"

On the morning of the 30th, participants are posing with placards at a press conference held at the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice in Jongno-gu, Seoul, announcing the status of small claims trials and urging the revision of the Small Claims Adjudication Act.
From the left: Nam Eun-kyung, Director of Social Policy at the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice; Jeong Ji-ung, Chair of the Citizens' Legislative Committee; Kim Sook-hee, Chair of the Citizens' Rights Center Operations Committee; Ga Min-seok, Secretary of the Social Policy Bureau.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] There has been a claim that the omission of reasons in judgments in small-claims civil trials infringes on the public's right to know and the right to a fair trial.

Small-claims trials involve civil cases with a litigation amount of 30 million won or less, accounting for 70% of first-instance civil substantive cases. These cases mainly concern issues directly related to people's livelihoods, such as loans and wages, but various special provisions under the Civil Procedure Act, such as 'omission of reasons in judgments,' have been applied to expedite trial proceedings.

The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) held a press conference on the 30th, stating, "The 30 million won threshold for small claims is close to 16 months' salary of a minimum wage worker and can threaten someone's livelihood," adding, "According to the court's small-claims standard, the rights to information and to a trial in a higher court are seriously infringed." According to CCEJ, 8 out of 10 litigants in small-claims cases proceed with 'self-representation' without hiring a lawyer.

Non-expert litigants find it difficult to know or infer the reasons for the first-instance judgment even if they do not accept it, making it legally challenging to refute and limiting their ability to file an appeal. According to CCEJ's investigation, the appeal rate for second-instance trials in small-claims cases is only 4.1%, which is about 20% of the appeal rate for general first-instance civil cases.

CCEJ stated, "The small-claims trial system is a result of excessively many cases relative to court personnel, shifting the burden of civil litigation onto litigants without addressing the shortage of personnel," and added, "Along with legal amendments, fundamentally, the insufficient number of judges relative to the number of cases must be supplemented to guarantee the public's right to a prompt and thorough trial."

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