The Korean Bar Association (President Kim Jeong-uk) said it "expresses deep regret," noting that in some recent trials, courts have reduced attorney fees set in agreements between attorneys and clients as being excessively high.
In a statement released on the 1st, the association said, "The principle that contracts must be kept is the most fundamental tenet supporting our judicial order," adding, "Court intervention in their contents is limited to exceptional cases with clear and reasonable grounds."
It continued, "Even in the so-called 'coerced donation case during the new military regime,' the Supreme Court held that, even if a disposition document was drafted to donate private property to the state while illegally taken and detained, the expression of intent to donate does not immediately become null and void."
The association said, "However, only with respect to attorney fee agreements does the court intervene ex post as if reexamining their reasonableness," adding, "The binding force of contracts is being easily undermined."
It also said, "Attorney fees are determined by comprehensively considering the complexity of the case, the anticipated responsibility and risk, and the attorney's expertise," adding, "If the stability of fee agreements is shaken, attorneys will avoid taking on high-difficulty, high-risk cases."
The association said, "Standards for reducing attorney fees are also ambiguous," adding, "If the binding force of fee agreements concluded by the parties is neutralized by placing only the abstract notion of 'equity' at the forefront, it is no different from the court effectively redrafting the contract."
The association said it "will closely monitor the judiciary's decisions to ensure that attorneys' legitimate claims to fees and the independence of attorneys' duties are not unjustly infringed."