The Supreme Court ruled that a lawyer's submission to a civil court of a contract containing a third party's personal information was a legitimate litigation act. Lower courts had found that this conduct violated the Personal Information Protection Act and ordered the lawyer to pay damages to the person whose information was leaked, but the Supreme Court reversed.
The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Eom Sang-pil) said on the 6th that it quashed the case in an appeal filed by a person surnamed Jeon against a lawyer surnamed Lee seeking damages and remanded it to the Incheon District Court, effectively ruling against Jeon.
Lee represented a client who was sued in 2021 for damages. In court, Lee argued that the plaintiff's claims were wrong and that a person identified as A was behind them. Lee then obtained from an acquaintance and submitted to the court a contract that A had entered into with investors who were in a dispute with a multilevel group.
Lee argued to the court, "Jeon does not have a lawyer's qualification but is taking on cases from investors and drafting complaints." The contract reportedly stated, "Jeon provides investors with information related to lawsuits and, in return, receives 50% of the compensation for damages." It also listed Jeon's name, resident registration number, address, and phone number. Jeon then filed a damages suit, claiming to have been harmed by Lee's violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.
Both the first and second trials ordered Lee to pay Jeon 40 million won in damages. The first-instance court said, "Lee used Jeon's personal information, learned in the course of work, without authorization in a third party's civil suit and is therefore obligated to compensate for Jeon's emotional harm." The appellate court reached the same conclusion.
However, the Supreme Court sided with Lee, saying the lower courts' decisions were wrong. The court said, "The materials Lee submitted were to challenge the credibility of the opposing party's claims and can be evaluated as part of litigation conduct," referring to Lee's submission of a third party's contract to the court. It also said, "The personal information in the contract does not include sensitive information, and the risk of it being provided to unrelated third parties is not great."