I am curious about the civil trial procedure.

Hello, here is a response to your question about the civil trial procedure.

A civil trial generally begins with the submission of a complaint.

When the complaint is received, the court serves it on the defendant, and the defendant must submit an answer within about 30 days.

Thereafter, a pleading-preparation date or a conciliation procedure may be conducted to organize both sides' arguments, and the court, after conducting the necessary examination of evidence, opens the full pleading dates.

At a pleading date, the parties and their representatives appear to present arguments and evidence, and the court considers these together and pronounces a judgment.

The length of the litigation varies depending on the difficulty of the case, the amount of evidence, and the parties' attitudes, but at the first-instance level it can usually take from 6 months to more than 1 year.

If the case goes all the way to the appellate and final-appeal stages, the entire procedure can span several years.

To prepare for trial, first, it is most important to organize the facts and evidence systematically. Objective materials such as contracts, receipts, and text messages or emails carry great weight as evidence.

Second, consistency of argument is necessary. If statements are reversed, credibility can be weakened.

Third, where specialized issues are involved, it is advisable to reinforce the legal reasoning with the help of an attorney.

In addition, as a rule, if you lose a civil trial, you must also bear the other party's litigation costs.

Litigation costs include not only the stamp fees and service fees that we commonly think of, but also various items such as appraisal costs, witness costs, and attorney's fees.

Specifically, there are the stamp fee paid when submitting the complaint, the service fee incurred when the court serves litigation documents, the cost of publishing the case notice in the official gazette or newspapers, appraisal fees paid to experts, travel expenses or daily allowances paid to witnesses, appraisers, and interpreters, and travel expenses for judges and court clerks, among others.

Attorney's fees are also included in the litigation costs.

However, the losing party does not bear the entire fee actually paid to the other party's attorney.

Under the 'Rules on the Inclusion of Attorney's Fees in Litigation Costs,' only a fixed standard amount is calculated according to the value of the suit.

For example, if the value of the suit is 20 million won, 10%, or 2 million won, is calculated, and if it exceeds 500 million won, only a certain rate (0.5%) is calculated.

Therefore, even if you lose, you do not bear the entire attorney's fee of the other party, and you are liable only within the ceiling prescribed by law.

If a judgment only determines the burden of litigation costs without specifying the concrete amount, the actual amount is fixed only when a party files an application with the court to determine the amount of litigation costs.

Because the civil trial procedure is complex and the response strategy may differ depending on the other party's arguments, it is advantageous in the long run to set the direction of the litigation in consultation with an attorney from the outset.

At Daeryun Law LLC, civil attorneys registered with the Korean Bar Association provide case-tailored response strategies after analyzing the latest statutes and precedents.

In addition, we collaborate with specialists in particular fields within the firm, such as accountants, tax accountants, patent agents, and labor attorneys, to provide a one-stop response to cases.