By Lee Kyung-min
A district court is increasing efforts to restore public trust in the criminal justice system by severing ties between judges and lawyers.
The Seoul Central District Court has recently adopted a system to reassign cases to different judges in order to prevent them from being tainted. The move follows criticism that wealthy people win criminal cases easily by hiring high-profile lawyers ― many of them former prosecutors or judges who can exercise influence on incumbent judges.
According to the court’s new guidelines it adopted earlier this month, criminal court judges cannot take a case where the defense attorney is their alumni from high school, university or graduate school, or classmates at the Judicial Research & Training Institute (JRTI) when they passed the bar exam.
The ban is also valid if the lawyer was a former judge and previously worked at the same district court as the presiding judge.
The new rule appears to be working so far, with high-profile defendants changing their lawyers following the court’s reassignment of judges.
In the case of former Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Kim Yang, who was indicted last month on corruption charges, the court initially assigned Judge Eom Sang-pil. Kim then hired 10 lawyers from Kim, Choi & Lim, a large law firm. Many were close to Eom and one of was even a high school alumni of his.
The court duly reassigned the case to Judge Hyun Yong-seon, and the 10 lawyers immediately offered to resign, showing the motive behind why Kim had hired them in the first place.
Kim subsequently hired lawyer Park Jae-hyun from another firm, Lee & Ko, a former judge who had worked with Hyun at district courts in Seoul, Jeju, and Incheon.
As the court planned to change the judge again, Kim gave up and withdrew hiring Park. Now he will be represented by another Lee & Ko lawyer, Jung Young-hoon, who has no particular personal connections with Hyun.
“It is important to restore public trust in the justice system. We’ll adopt any measure to root out corrupt ties among law professionals and secure fair trials,” the court head Kang Hyung-joo said after his inauguration on Aug. 12.
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, who was indicted for receiving kickbacks from the late Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung Woan-jong, also faced a similar situation.
He hired lawyers who attended the JRTI the same year as the presiding judge. The court reassigned the case to another judge after discovering the connection.
South Gyeongsang Governor Hong Joon-pyo, who was indicted for accepting bribes from Sung, also hired lawyers with a connection to the judge in his case. But as the court moved to change the judge, Hong hired another lawyer.
A local judge said he hopes lawyers will learn that winning cases through personal connections will ultimately harm them in the long run.
“We hope this measure spreads across courts nationwide to help guarantee fair trials,” he said.