It took an average of 1 year and 1 month from filing to disposition for civil cases handled by three-judge panels that received first-instance rulings at courts nationwide last year. The average case processing time decreased for the first time in six years.
According to the Supreme Court's 2025 Judicial Yearbook on the 24th, there were 17,866 civil cases handled by three-judge panels that received first-instance rulings last year. These cases took 394.9 days from filing to the first-instance ruling. That is about 35.5 days shorter than 430.4 days in 2023.
The average first-instance processing time for civil cases before three-judge panels had been steadily rising from 265.5 days in 2018. It surged in particular from 286.9 days in 2020, when COVID-19 was spreading widely, to 321.9 days in 2021 and 377.5 days in 2022. As more parties were unable to appear in court, first-instance proceedings were delayed.
A court official said, "The first-instance delay problem was serious during COVID, but it can be seen as a process of normalizing since last year." The official also noted, "Since Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae took office, measures to reduce trial delays—such as having chief judges conduct trials directly—appear to have had an effect."
The average first-instance processing time for single-judge civil cases also fell for the second straight year. There were 222,916 cases with first-instance rulings last year, and the average processing time was 198.4 days. Following 205.1 days in 2022 and 199.7 days in 2023, it decreased again last year.
By contrast, the first-instance processing time for small-claims civil cases has been uneven. Last year, 466,943 cases received first-instance rulings, and the average processing time was 131.2 days. It fell from 135.4 days in 2022 to 129.7 days in 2023, then inched up again last year.
The period to reach a second-instance ruling at the high courts increased by about 40 days last year to 995.7 days from 956.9 days a year earlier. At the district courts during this period, it fell from 720.7 days to 714.3 days. The time to finalization at the Supreme Court increased by 72.7 days, from 1,198.4 days in 2023 (three-judge panel standard) to 1,271.1 days last year.