Increase the number of judges first

Cho Hee-dae, new chief justice of the Supreme Court, took office Monday. His first task is to remove the deepening public distrust in courts, which resulted from his predecessor Kim Myeong-su. The new chief justice must quickly address judges’ political bias and their procrastination of trials during Kim’s six-year reign. As Cho pointed out, the bench is fueling people’s pain from the delayed trials.

According to the Judicial Policy Research Institute, the period to deal with civil cases was extended to 420 days from 245 days — and for criminal cases, from 158 days to 223 days — over the past decade. The time required until the first trial by a single-judge bench on a criminal case also nearly doubled to 84 days. Civil cases were no different.

People are entitled to a timely trial, as stipulated in the Constitution. But the basic right has been critically restricted. That makes it more difficult for plaintiffs to recover from physical and financial damages. Some companies even had to shutter due to their delayed trials. Meanwhile, many lawmakers can gladly serve their entire term thanks to the deferment of their trials on election crimes.

The problem first surfaced after judges were less motivated to proceed with trials after the former chief justice banned judges from being promoted to senior judges at high courts after a certain period of time and after the introduction of the expedient rule of “delivering three rules for three weeks followed by one week off.” The former chief justice’s adherence to ex-judges to fill the quota for new judges also worsened the situation.

However, even if the promotion system for judges is revived and the recruitment of judges from former judges is scrapped, it can hardly solve the problem given the drastic increase in the number of female judges cherishing their work-life balance above all else. You also cannot ignore the need for more judges because there are more attorneys in increasingly complicated cases as these days.

And yet, the quota for judges has been fixed at 3,214 for the past 10 years. During that time, the number of attorneys more than doubled. But the figure for new judges is expected to be stagnant next year, too.

The government last year submitted a bill to increase judges by 370. But the bill is gathering dust in the legislature. While the governing party insists on passing another bill aimed at increasing the number of prosecutors by 220 at the same time, the opposition party resists it, criticizing the government for exploiting the prosecution for political purposes.

In the meantime, citizens’ basic rights to a swift trial is being infringed upon. The two parties must pass the bill on increasing judges first, which is more urgent. The new chief justice said the judiciary is the last resort to protect people’s basic rights. Legislators must hurry to pass the bill.