The court recognized a compensation liability of 50 million won against lawyer Kwon Kyung-ae, who caused a loss by repeatedly failing to appear at trials without permission while representing the bereaved family of a school violence victim.
On the 11th, Judge Noh Han-dong of Civil Division 85 at the Seoul Central District Court ruled partially in favor of the plaintiff, Lee Gi-cheol, the mother of the late school violence victim Park Joo-won, ordering lawyer Kwon and law firm A to jointly pay 50 million won in damages.
Lawyer Kwon did not attend the sentencing on that day. Unlike criminal trials, civil trials do not require the parties to be present.
Previously, in 2016, lawyer Kwon represented Ms. Lee in a civil lawsuit against the perpetrators of school violence. Ms. Lee won partially in the first trial, but in the appeal, lawyer Kwon failed to appear at three scheduled hearings, resulting in a loss in November 2022. According to Article 268 of the Civil Procedure Act, if parties fail to appear at trial three times, the lawsuit is considered withdrawn.
Because lawyer Kwon did not inform the bereaved family of the loss, they were unable to file an appeal to the Supreme Court in time, finalizing the judgment. It was revealed that during this period, he consistently posted political content on social media (SNS).
When the situation was reported in the media, Ms. Lee filed a damage compensation lawsuit worth over 200 million won in April last year against lawyer Kwon, the law firm where he worked, and two other lawyers from the same firm.
The court proposed a compulsory mediation order for lawyer Kwon and his law firm to pay Ms. Lee 50 million won, but Ms. Lee raised objections, leading to formal trial proceedings.
In a response submitted to the court in October last year, lawyer Kwon admitted, “I acknowledge the facts that the bereaved family’s right to a trial was infringed due to the deemed withdrawal of the appeal and that the right to appeal was infringed by not notifying the loss in the second trial,” but argued, “I acted with due care as a manager and did my best in the first trial, including applying for witnesses, without violating my duty of care in handling the case.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Kwon received a one-year suspension from the Korean Bar Association in June last year for violating the duty of sincerity under the Attorney-at-Law Act due to this incident.
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