Groundless Law Suits Increasing

On average, 1.2 persons out of 100 in Korea are sued every year, but, in an indication of the quality of suits filed, the actual portion that are even judged worthy of a trial sits near the 20 percent level.
According to material released by the Ministry of Justice on Monday, 586,826 individual people, as opposed to businesses and corporations, were sued last year, averaging 1.27 persons out of 100 out of the total populace.
Ulsan topped the rate averaging 1.55 people sued per the city's population while Cheju was the lowest with 0.93.
As for this year as of August, 396,408 people were sued, which, if the trend continues, by year end will reach 1.3 people sued on average, signaling no easing of litigiousness among Koreans.
However, the legitimacy of such suits appears to be shrinking, as the real trial rate declined from 23.9 percent in 1996 to 20.4 percent in 1998. In addition, 4,438 people have been indicted for filing slanderous and malicious suits so far in 1999.
Bong Hwa-shik:trojans@joongang.co.kr