“What has the Ministry of Justice done so far” fear of infection of bar exam candidates tomorrow

Choi Sang-won (39), a graduate of Sogang University Law School (law school), who is about to take the bar exam on the 5th, sighed. You can take the bar exam five times over five years, but this year is your last chance for Choi. Choi said, “Isn’t it possible to be infected with corona more than taking the test for five days?” and said, “The quarantine measure of the Ministry of Justice, which is the department in charge of the attorney test, is to open the window of the test room an hour before the test to ventilate it.”

He said, “I have to take the test at Chung-Ang University, where only 6 confirmed patients have been tested,” he said. “I dreamed of becoming a public interest lawyer and prepared for the test after working at a company for 3 to 4 years, but now I want to clear my mind.”

Bar exam. Yonhap News

The Ministry of Justice, which has risen on the cutting board due to the collective infection of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) related to the Eastern Detention Center in Seoul, is now thinking of the originality of preliminary lawyers. This is because the number of corona19 confirmed cases is rapidly increasing, and the bar exam is enforced on the 5th without clear infection prevention measures. Park Mo (30), a fourth grader at a law school in Seoul, said, “I made every effort, such as refraining from going out to avoid getting Corona 19 while preparing for the exam for the past year. Even though there was no cover for each desk that had existed, it was a feeling of collapse.”

This is the study of a law school graduate, 53, who was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2018, but has prepared a bar exam for his dream. [박씨 제공]

Some candidates have abandoned their dream of becoming a lawyer. Kim Mo (53), a late attorney preparation student, said, “I was diagnosed with rectal cancer three years ago and was diagnosed with a cerebral infarction last year, but I ran without giving up”. “I lost my hopes by seeing the Ministry of Justice to come up with remedies with ambiguous expressions ahead of the final exam this year.” Said. He added, “If we had properly established quarantine measures from last summer during the time to fight the prosecution, we would have dreamed of becoming a lawyer who protects the property rights of small and medium-sized businesses that have advanced overseas, but yesterday afternoon, he told his family that it seemed appropriate to give up this test. I canceled the test.”

The Ministry of Justice had already raised controversy in November last year by promulgating a policy of’no testimony for confirmed patients’. According to Article 7 of the Bar Examination Act, candidates can take the bar exam up to five times within five years from the end of the month in which they obtained a law school master’s degree. Accordingly, candidates who are nearing the expiration of the exam period will lose their exam opportunities if they are confirmed as coronavirus. Even if it is confirmed during the exam, you cannot take the remaining exams. In response to this, some law school candidates filed a constitutional complaint on the 29th of last month in the announcement of the examination by the Ministry of Justice, which restricted the admission of the bar exam for corona19 confirmed persons and filed a temporary injunction to suspend the validity.

As the controversy spread, the Ministry of Justice proposed a quarantine management plan for the attorney test three days before the test, but it was only criticized for being an obsolete countermeasure. For those who were notified of self-isolation as close contacts after 6pm on the 3rd, two days before the exam, they said that they were guaranteed to take the exam in a separate building, but the exam site was not guided until the day before. In addition, it was pointed out that there is a high risk of developing a confirmed case if these isolates are gathered in one classroom to take an exam.

From Yonsei University and Chung-Ang University, which are the test sites, to confirmed cases, the anxiety of the test takers was added. On the 4th, the test takers requested an administrative trial against the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Mayor of Seoul, and the Mayor of Seodaemun-gu and Dongjak-gu, Seoul to conduct an epidemiological investigation of Corona 19 at the test site. Even though a confirmed case occurred at the test site, the fact that local governments do not conduct epidemiological investigations on contacts is the intention of violating the COVID-19 response policy.

Lawyer Hyo-kyung Bang (P&K Law Firm), the legal representative, said, “In the reality that more than 1,000 confirmed cases appear every day, an individual cannot control the infection and cannot be held accountable to individuals. Even in such a situation, the Ministry of Justice He pointed out that even though the court asked for an answer on the restriction on the admission of confirmed patients, it did not give any answer.”

Reporter Park Hyun-joo [email protected]