Judges' Representative Meeting Resolves to "Disclose Judgments and Expand Criminal Electronic Litigation"

National Judges' Representative Meeting held online via video conference on the 18th. / Provided by National Judges' Representative Meeting

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The National Judges' Representative Meeting, a gathering representing judges from courts nationwide, has passed a resolution to expand the disclosure of verdicts and to promote the expansion of criminal electronic litigation.

At the temporary meeting of the National Judges' Representative Meeting held online via video conference from 2 p.m. on the 18th, with 116 of the 125 judge representatives attending, four agenda items were approved: ▲ Request to expand the scope of verdict disclosure ▲ Request to promote criminal electronic litigation ▲ Improvement of the Planning Judge system ▲ Improvement of the Mediation Committee.

First, the Judges' Representative Meeting resolved to further expand the scope of verdict disclosure to enhance the public's right to know and the transparency of trials, thereby improving public trust in the judiciary, while simultaneously taking necessary measures to prevent invasion of privacy and personal information of litigation parties.

The Judges' Representative Meeting anticipated that this would also contribute to the development of legal culture through active discussions.

Additionally, to enhance transparency in criminal trials and expedite procedural progress, thereby improving public rights and interests, the Judges' Representative Meeting resolved to gradually and comprehensively promote criminal electronic litigation, establish human and material conditions, and swiftly expand the pilot service scope for viewing electronic copies of criminal electronic litigation records as a preliminary step.

Currently, the designation or division of judicial administrative support duties of judicial administrative officers, known as 'Planning Judges,' is left to the autonomy of each court, but their election and scope of duties are to be decided in a way that sufficiently reflects the opinions of affiliated judges.

Furthermore, it was resolved that support judges should, as much as possible, concurrently handle appropriate trial duties.

Considering that there were opinions requesting the abolition of the Planning Judge system in courts at all levels following the judicial administrative power abuse incident, it was recommended that courts establish judicial administrative support judges suited to their circumstances but change their title to ‘Support Judges.’

Finally, the Judges' Representative Meeting resolved to expand the implementation of dedicated mediation attorneys, currently in operation at 21 courts including the Seoul Central District Court, to courts of a certain scale or larger to ensure the Mediation Committee functions effectively within the courts, and to increase the number of dedicated mediation attorneys.