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| Seoul District Court judge Kim Young-ki, right, listens to a plaintiff's lawyer, visible on the screen, during a video hearing on Wednesday in Seoul. Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
At 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, courtroom 477 of the Seoul Central District Court was unusually empty.
Judge Kim Young-ki entered the room, sat down, took off his mask and started to talk to the computer screen in front of him.
"Legal representative for the plaintiff, can you hear me okay?" he asked.
"Yes, I can," the lawyer on the computer screen answered. Her face was projected on a big white screen on the wall to the judge's right.
The judge also asked the same question to the defendant's side before hearing their claims.
The hearing was to decide whether a hot dog outlet located at a tourist spot on Geoje Island violated the unfair competition prevention law by selling the same food that was being sold in another outlet close by. The owner of the original restaurant who brought up the case claimed the second restaurant also stole its trademark.
The plaintiff's lawyer took part in the hearing from her Seoul office, while the defendant and his lawyer were at the Changwon District Court where video conferencing was possible.
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing how courts operate in Korea.
The court revised rules for civil lawsuits recently permitting video hearings if both sides agree. The new rules went into effect on June 1, and Wednesday's hearing was the first since then.
Wednesday's video hearing was arranged as the defendant's lawyer, who is from Tongyong, South Gyeongsang Province, requested for the court to reschedule the hearing. The pandemic led to changes to the bus schedules and made it difficult for the lawyer to attend the scheduled hearing.
"It's not that there were zero online hearings before," said a district court official, "but now the law says video hearings are an option and that's what makes it significant."
Wednesday's hearing, which lasted less than one hour, went smoothly. No major technical problems occurred during the session. The judge had no problem opening or sharing documents from the plaintiff and defendant. Voices were also clear for the most part.
The two sides agreed to hold the next hearing online as well.
Asked by the judge how they liked the video hearing, both the defendant, his lawyer and the plaintiff's lawyer expressed satisfaction. "It's convenient that I don't have to come to Seoul," the defendant said.
The judge said, "The court is hoping to offer a better service to citizens and that's why we started the online hearing service. Please feel free to use it."
The pandemic brought about similar changes to other courts in the country. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court has already conducted 10 video hearings since May and equipped six rooms with the necessary equipment.
This isn't happening only in Korea. Courts around the world are going through similar changes.
According to the Financial Times, the High Court in the U.K. conducted video hearings in March for a case brought by the Republic of Kazakhstan against Moldovan businessman Anatolie Stati and U.S. bank BNY Mellon. All hearings were livestreamed on YouTube.
