Case Analysis / Legal Updates

A dentist who had received a suspension of indictment (a prosecutor's discretionary decision not to indict despite sufficient evidence, comparable to a deferred or declined prosecution) for violation of the Medical Service Act filed a constitutional complaint (a request contesting an administrative action before an agency prior to court litigation, comparable to seeking administrative review), and the Constitutional Court held that treatment of oneself does not constitute a violation of the Medical Service Act.

Administrative litigation is a lawsuit filed against an improper administrative disposition. A District Court has ruled that a local government's decision to suspend a daycare center's subsidies lacked any legal basis and ordered the disposition revoked.

A, who had been criminally punished for violation of the Military Service Act, applied for overseas travel for the purpose of studying abroad, but the Military Manpower Administration denied the application. The Administrative Court likewise found the Military Manpower Administration's disposition to be justified.

In adjudicating a charge of perjury, we will analyze a District Court judgment holding that, where there is no evidence that the witness directly observed the moment of the offense, the witness is not guilty even when prosecuted for making a false statement.

Among violations of the Medical Service Act, unlicensed medical practice is plainly illegal. The director of an obstetrics and gynecology clinic was found to have entrusted proxy surgeries to a nursing assistant, and the court sentenced him to imprisonment.

The following is an analysis of a District Court judgment holding that, even though a drunk-driving accident occurred, the defendant was not guilty because the breath-test process was not conducted lawfully.

In a matter relating to commercial-unit sale fraud, a District Court issued a judgment holding that, where the presence of a pillar within a commercial unit was not disclosed, the buyer may rescind the sale contract or claim damages for breach of the duty to disclose.

Online grooming refers to the act of approaching a child or youth online, conditioning the victim, and sexually exploiting them. A judgment has been issued that recognized such conduct as a sex crime for the first time.

Regarding the admissibility of a suspect interrogation protocol as evidence, this article analyzes a Supreme Court decision holding that such a protocol cannot be used as evidence of guilt where the defendant does not consent to it.

As the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (a 2022 Korean statute imposing criminal liability on business operators for serious safety accidents, with no direct common-law equivalent) has recently been extended to apply even to workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, a fine was imposed on a company representative in Chungbuk for the first time on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

We will analyze a District Court judgment that imposed a suspended sentence (a suspended sentence under Korean law, broadly comparable to a suspended sentence or probation in common-law systems, under which the conviction loses its effect once the suspension period passes without incident) of imprisonment in consideration of the motive of a defendant who was prosecuted for violating the Narcotics Control Act.

We will analyze a court judgment holding that, among the acts of a drug courier, the act of delivering methamphetamine imported by international express mail occurred after the principal offenders' criminal act had ended and thus constituted aiding after the fact, so the defendant was not an accomplice.