Police: "Rotok Does Not Violate Attorney Act"... Third 'No Charges' Conclusion

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] Law platform operator Law&Company announced on the 31st that the legality of Lotok has been proven through a police investigation. This is the third clearance of charges by investigative authorities following those in 2015 and 2017.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which investigated the case in which Lotok was accused of violating the Attorney-at-Law Act and the Personal Information Protection Act, concluded all charges against Lotok as 'no charges' and issued a non-prosecution decision to close the investigation. This came 13 months after the Lawyer Defense Group filed a complaint against Lotok in November last year.

The Lawyer Defense Group claimed that Lotok was a paid case brokerage service prohibited under Article 34 of the Attorney-at-Law Act. However, the police judged that there was no suspicion considering that Lotok does not receive fees based on whether a case is accepted and does not introduce a specific lawyer to clients. The police also issued a non-prosecution decision for other allegations, including that Lotok’s AI technology-based service ‘Lotok Sentencing Prediction’ and branding advertisements violated the Attorney-at-Law Act.

In fact, Lotok does not charge fees for lawyers’ paid consultations or case acceptance under the current Attorney-at-Law Act. Clients can freely choose lawyers based on various information such as fees, consultation cases, and resolved cases on Lotok. The consultation fees paid by clients are fully paid to the lawyers.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Given this situation, there are criticisms that the Korea Bar Association’s claim that Lotok is an illegal platform has lost its legitimacy. In May of this year, while the police investigation was ongoing, the Bar Association revised the ‘Regulations on Lawyer Advertising’ to regulate Lotok. This was essentially creating regulations to regulate Lotok on the premise that it was illegal. The Bar Association recently referred 201 Lotok member lawyers to a special investigation committee and initiated disciplinary procedures. However, following the successive no-charge conclusions by investigative authorities, the Ministry of Justice, the main department overseeing the Attorney-at-Law Act, also stated that Lotok did not violate the current Attorney-at-Law Act.

Kim Bonhwan, CEO of Law&Company, said, “The police’s no-charge non-prosecution conclusion is natural and fortunate, but it is painful that the same service had to endure three rounds of accusations and investigations.” He added, “Although the Bar Association’s unfair disciplinary policy has caused half of the lawyer members to withdraw, causing great damage, we will continue to work with lawyers for the development of the legal market.”

Meanwhile, the number of lawyer members using Lotok has continued to grow for 85 consecutive months since the service launch. The number of Lotok lawyer members reached about 4,000 at the end of March but shrank to 1,901 in September after the Bar Association revised the advertising regulations. From January to September this year, Lotok’s average monthly active users (MAU) was 988,304.

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