It was confirmed on the 11th that courts nationwide belatedly paid 32% of the court-appointed defense attorneys' fees that should have been paid last year, this year. The courts essentially ran a kind of tab due to budget shortfalls. Not only has this been going on for years, but the amount in arrears is on the rise.
According to a compilation of ChosunBiz reporting that day, 152,576 court-appointed defense attorneys handled criminal cases filed with the courts last year. The share of criminal cases handled by court-appointed defense attorneys was 45.7%. This was the highest since the court-appointed defense attorney system was introduced in 2005.
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, courts must appoint a defense attorney if the defendant is in custody, or if the defendant is a minor, 70 or older, deaf, suspected of mental or physical impairment, or has been indicted for a case punishable by death, life imprisonment, or a fixed term of imprisonment or confinement of three years or more and has no attorney. Defendants who are financially strained may also directly ask the court to appoint a court-appointed defense attorney.
Demand for court-appointed defense attorneys has been steadily increasing. With an aging population, the number of defendants aged 70 or older who fall under mandatory appointment has grown. It is also said that more people want court-appointed defense attorneys due to economic hardship. In addition, the 2021 amendment to the Military Court Act increased the number of military defendants tried in civilian courts. The Supreme Court's en banc decision in May last year that "if a person already in custody is indicted in a separate case, a separate court-appointed defense attorney must be provided" is also contributing to rising demand for court-appointed defense attorneys.
Court-appointed defense attorneys are paid 550,000 won per case. Accordingly, fees that should have been paid last year amounted to 69.6 billion won. However, the amount actually paid is said to have been only 47.1 billion won. The remaining 22.5 billion won was reportedly paid belatedly early this year.
But this was not the first time this year. Court-appointed defense fee arrears surged from 500 million won in 2021 to 2.8 billion won in 2022, 9.4 billion won in 2023, and 22.5 billion won in 2024. It is also reported that from January to July this year, unpaid amounts reached 13.7 billion won.
The reason court-appointed defense fees remain in arrears is that the National Assembly cuts the budget requested by the courts. Last year, the Court Administration Office requested 98.2 billion won for court-appointed defense in this year's budget. That figure combined last year's arrears with the amount expected to be paid this year. But only 78 billion won was allocated. An official at the Court Administration Office said, "With the national budget constrained, it seems the court-appointed defense budget is being pushed down the priority list."
The legal community worries that continued arrears in court-appointed defense fees could lead to a decline in the quality of court-appointed defense. Attorney A, who has served as a court-appointed defense attorney for the past 10 years, said, "It is already common for defendants with a court-appointed defense attorney to look for another lawyer, saying the existing attorney doesn't answer calls and doesn't work." Another court-appointed defense attorney, Mr. B, said, "It's not a job we do for the salary, but we should be paid fair compensation for our labor on time."