Chief of the Court Administration Office: "Easing the '5-year experience' requirement for judge appointments is very meaningful... Resolves trial delays"

The Supreme Court's Judicial Administration Office welcomed on the 27th the passage of a bill by the National Assembly that relaxes the legal career requirement for judicial appointments from the existing 10 years to '5 years,' calling it "a very meaningful event."

Cheon Dae-yeop, Director of the Court Administration Office (Photo by Yonhap News)

Cheon Dae-yeop, head of the Judicial Administration Office, stated in a post on the court's internal network (CourtNet) that "this legal amendment respects the purpose and intent of the unified legal profession system while considering the public's demand to resolve trial delays, the workload and working conditions of judges, and the overall environment of the legal profession. It allows legal professionals who have accumulated diverse and rich experience through an appropriate legal career to be appointed as judges." He added, "Therefore, it is a very meaningful event in that our courts have established conditions to resolve disputes promptly through faithful trials based on smooth and stable judicial appointments."

Cheon also emphasized, "Going forward, to faithfully implement the purpose of the unified legal profession system, we will continuously improve the judicial appointment procedures to appoint judges who possess diverse and rich experience along with character and competence." He stressed, "Along with improving judges' treatment, we will enhance various systems in line with the purpose and objectives of the revised Court Organization Act in the era of full unified legal profession, ensuring that citizens' right to trial is fully guaranteed and that judges can devote themselves to judicial duties with pride in a more stable environment." He added, "We will also accelerate efforts to establish a personnel system suitable for lifelong judicial service for judges appointed with more than five years of legal experience."

The National Assembly passed the partial amendment to the Court Organization Act the day before through bipartisan agreement. The core of the amendment is to reduce the legal career requirement for judge appointments from 10 years to 5 years. It includes provisions that allow those with more than 20 years of legal experience to be appointed as dedicated judges handling specific judicial affairs, and that those with less than 10 years of legal experience, in principle, cannot serve as sole presiding judges in oral arguments.