[Exclusive] Jo Hee-dae Initiates 'Court Chief Trial'... Agenda Submitted for This Year's First Supreme Court Meeting

Discussion on Extending Judges' Minimum 'Case Assignment Period'
Long-Unresolved Cases Handled Directly by Court Presidents

Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae's initiative to improve trial delays by implementing 'court president trials' has been submitted as an agenda item for the first Supreme Court Justices' meeting of the year. The plan is to amend regulations to allow court presidents to directly handle long-pending cases, thereby resolving trial delays.

According to a comprehensive report by Asia Economy on the 17th, the Supreme Court will hold a Justices' meeting on the morning of the 18th to discuss the "Amendment of Regulations for Prolonged Judge Work Allocation and Court President Trial Duties."

During the meeting, discussions will focus on extending the minimum work allocation period for judges and allowing court presidents to take charge of courtroom trial duties. Currently, the work allocation period is one year for associate judges and two years for chief judges; the plan is to extend this period to address issues such as trial delays caused by changes in the trial panel.

Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae is delivering a greeting at the National Court Presidents' Meeting held on the 15th of last month in the Grand Conference Room of the Supreme Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Additionally, the meeting will discuss establishing a new regulatory provision based on the regulations concerning the allocation of duties and case assignments for judges, enabling court presidents to principally handle trial duties. It will also consider abolishing guidelines related to court presidents' and support chiefs' trial duties that have not reflected changes in circumstances since their enactment.

The Justices' meeting is divided into regular and extraordinary sessions, with the regular meeting held once a month. Matters such as the enactment and amendment of Supreme Court rules, including criminal procedure rules, are discussed and decided in these meetings.

Within the judiciary, there is strong speculation that, given Chief Justice Cho's firm intention to assign long-pending cases to court presidents, the regulations will be smoothly amended through the Justices' meeting, restructuring the system so that court presidents directly handle trials.

During last year's confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Cho stated, "We plan to specially focus on managing long-pending cases and have court presidents prioritize handling trials, especially assigning them to long-pending cases."

The extension of the minimum work allocation period for judges and the court president trial system, which will be approved through the Justices' meeting, are expected to be applied starting with personnel changes for court presidents, high court chief judges, and high court judges around the 26th of this month.

Earlier, at last month's National Court Presidents' Meeting, court presidents shared the status of the backlog of long-pending cases and exchanged opinions on the necessity for court presidents to play a leading and central role in handling long-pending cases, including the allocation of duties related to these cases.