The Statue of Justice installed at the entrance of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Senior Reporter Kang Chang-Kwang [email protected]
In the era of 30,000 attorneys, lawyers’ organizations are launching an all-round offensive to protect the industry. In order to reduce the number of new attorneys entering the market, they are demanding a reduction in the number of passers-by at the bar exam, while accusing the online legal platform. In the early 2000s, it is similar to the’age of 6,000 lawyers’, and some point out that lawyer groups respond only to the increase in the number of lawyers by’restrictions on entry’ and are unable to keep up with the changing world. The Korean Bar Association made a statement on the 19th, arguing that “a decision of more than 1200 successful candidates will lead to mass unemployment of new lawyers.” It is before the announcement of the candidates who passed the 10th bar exam on the 23rd. The association also issued a statement in February, stating that as of 2018, the average monthly mandate of attorneys affiliated with the Seoul Bar Association was only 1.2, and that a reduction in the number of admitted persons was inevitable to ensure quality legal services. On the 26th and 9th of last month, an opinion was submitted to the Ministry of Justice to reduce the number of successful applicants to 1200. In the past three years, there have been 1599 to 1768 people who passed the Byeon-si, and they argue that the number of successful applicants should be reduced annually in consideration of the situation in the domestic legal market. The Korea Bar Association emphasized that “(the increase in passers) is to push out the cumulative test dropouts and those who pass the change in order to address the complaints of graduates,” and “accelerate the collapse of the entire lawyer and legal market.” This controversy is similar to the time of ‘6,000 lawyers’ in 2004, before the introduction of law school. At the time, the Seoul Bar Association, a district of the Korean Bar Association, said, “In order for one attorney to maintain an office and earn about 5 million won per month, six cases must be entrusted per month.” The number of passing the bar exam was 500. It insisted that it should be lowered to the myeong line. Regarding the quality of legal services, he said, “As lawyers have been produced in large numbers since 1996, the socio-economic status of lawyers has rapidly deteriorated, and the quality of legal services has rather deteriorated.” It is quite the same as what the current lawyer groups are claiming. The high progress surrounding online legal platforms is similar to the past when lawyer advertising was allowed. Lawyer advertisements became possible with the revision of the Lawyers Act in 2000, and at that time, the lawyers’ organizations also objected that’if advertisement is allowed, competition for low-cost mandates arises, causing problems such as insolvent defense. Recently, as the proportion of attorney advertisements online has increased, the competition for fees has also passed online, and accusations by lawyers are continuing. The Korean Bar Association and others have been accusing the prosecution of a lawyer brokerage platform such as’Rotalk’, which allows you to seek or consult an attorney online. This is because he violated the Lawyers Act, which stipulated that’you must not get money and hire an attorney.’ However, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office issued two acquittals with the intention that Rotok was merely an online advertisement rather than intervening in the case. In response to this movement, some of the legal circles are criticized that the Korean Bar Association has turned into an interest group that is in a hurry to’keeping a bowl of rice’. Recently, the Korean Law School Association said, “The majority of citizens want legal services that have lowered their threshold. In this situation, insisting that the number of successful candidates should be reduced is to neglect the will of the sovereign people and go against the trend of the times. ‘The 10th Bar Exam Candidates’ Meeting for Truth Finding and Countermeasures for the Bar Exam’ also recently made a statement, saying, “The Korean Bar Association, which should strive for improvement and development of legal affairs, is urgently in a hurry to kick the ladder of juniors and keep a bowl of rice. He said, “It is making a selfish argument that considers only the interests of the bargaining agreement, which is contrary to the interests of the people who want legal services that have lowered the threshold.” Regarding the high development of the online legal platform, Hyung-geun Jeong, a lawyer at law expert at Kyung Hee University Law School, said, “The (prohibition of paid lawyers) provision was created in 1973 for the purpose of regulating brokers. According to this, it is not correct to see it as’recruiting a lawyer’. When the number of attorneys was small, it was relatively easy to take on cases even if they did not perform special commissioning activities. However, as the number of lawyers increases and it becomes difficult to take over cases (such as a backlash from lawyers), controversy arises. By Shin Min-jeong, staff reporter