Ilsan Attorney | Ilsan Administrative Litigation Attorney, Obtaining a Revocation Judgment for a Client Who Received a Denial of Official Medical Care

The client worked for many years at a public institution's call center and was under significant psychological stress because of emotional labor and abusive complaints.

The client was even a victim of workplace harassment, suffering daily verbal abuse and unfair treatment from a supervisor, and the client's health deteriorated day by day.

The high-intensity work repeated each day and the verbal abuse from complainants seriously harmed the client's mental health, and the client was eventually diagnosed with several conditions, including tinnitus, headaches, depression, and anxiety disorder.

The client judged the illness to be directly related to work and applied for approval of official medical care, but received a denial of approval from the competent agency on the ground that "the causal relationship between the work and the illness is not clear."

The client then filed an administrative lawsuit with the court of first instance, but the court likewise judged the causal relationship between the work and the illness to be insufficient and dismissed the client's claim.

The client explained that they felt at a loss, not knowing where to even go to be compensated for an illness developed in the course of carrying out official duties.

After losing at the first instance, the client requested help from the Ilsan administrative litigation attorney, and the attorney began preparing the appeal (administrative litigation) for the client.

The administrative litigation attorney thoroughly investigated the client's work environment, medical history, and additional evidence to prove the correlation between the work and the illness, and established a legal strategy by analyzing relevant precedents and legal principles.

The administrative litigation attorney explained that the official medical care system is closely related to a public official's performance of official duties.

Among these, official medical care benefits refer to benefits that pay the costs incurred when a public official receives medical care for an injury or illness arising in connection with the performance of official duties.

Approval of official medical care means that a public official who has suffered an official injury or illness and wishes to receive medical care at a medical institution may apply for approval of official medical care, and after approval, may claim medical care benefits.

A point to note here is that an additional application for approval may be made for an illness that was omitted from the initial approval application or that newly arises during the course of treatment.

The medical care approval procedure is as follows.

2. The relevant agency (the pension-handling agency) prepares an injury and illness circumstances investigation report and the like on the "application for approval of official medical care" submitted by the applicant, and transfers it to the corporation.

3. After confirming and investigating the facts, the corporation transfers the case to the Ministry of Personnel Management, or, where the case clearly amounts to an official injury, the corporation reviews it and notifies its decision directly.

4. If the case is transferred to the Ministry of Personnel Management, approval of official medical care is decided after deliberation by the [Public Officials' Accident Compensation Deliberation Committee].

• Note: a claim for benefits must be made within three years of the date the grounds for the benefit arise, and if three years pass, the right to claim is extinguished by prescription.

The administrative litigation attorney explained that the following preparation is needed in order to obtain revocation of a denial of official medical care.

1. Establishing that a substantial causal relationship exists between the official duties and the illness

As with the client, the connection between the cause of the illness and the work must be proven in concrete terms.

In this process, evidence must be presented that takes into account the work environment, its characteristics, the time of onset of the illness, and the like.

2. Thoroughly preparing medical treatment and medical records, medical opinions, appraisal reports, and the like

Medical materials and expert opinions that can support the argument are needed.

3. Arguing the legal basis on the strength of similar precedents

If there is a precedent similar to the client's case, it should be put forward as a logical legal argument to support the claim.

The administrative litigation attorney thoroughly reviewed the client's diagnosis of depression and anxiety disorder, treatment records, past medical history, and the like, and used them as litigation materials.

In particular, the attorney organized and submitted concrete examples of the stress that the client experienced during work.

In this process, the attorney submitted more than ten records, including about three years of medical records and physicians' opinions, which supported the argument regarding the development of the illness in the course of performing official duties.

The administrative litigation attorney developed a persuasive argument on appeal, relying on a similar precedent in which an illness caused by emotional labor and stress as a public official was recognized as work-related.

In particular, the precedent the attorney presented, holding that 'a causal relationship need not necessarily be proven clearly in medical or natural-scientific terms, and where a substantial causal relationship is recognized from a normative standpoint, proof should be deemed to exist (Supreme Court, judgment of September 21, 2017, 2017Du47878),' was recognized and became the basis for comprehensively assessing indirect facts such as the client's state of health at the time of employment and the presence of any preexisting illness.

The administrative litigation attorney argued that the tinnitus and headaches the client developed while performing call center official duties had a causal relationship with several causes, including abusive complaints and workplace harassment.

The attorney also established that, because the client could not carry out official duties normally due to the illness, mental conditions such as depression and anxiety disorder set in and afflicted the client.

To support this argument, the attorney presented sufficient grounds, including a physician's opinion and testimony from a coworker.