As more disputes are resolved through litigation rather than negotiation or settlement, trial durations are lengthening and cost burdens are growing. For civil first-instance collegiate panel cases, the time to a final ruling has increased by more than 100 days over the past four years. Analysts say the trend of relying on courts for dispute resolution, compounded by a shortage of judges, is driving a sharp rise in social costs.
According to the World Justice Project (WJP), an international rule-of-law organization, South Korea scored 0.73 for civil justice timeliness last year, ranking seventh among major countries worldwide. That marks a decline from 2020, when Korea scored 0.80 and placed second. The country hovered around fifth place from 2021 through 2024 before slipping to seventh last year.
Domestic trial processing times are also trending longer. Data from the National Court Administration show that the average time to a final ruling in civil first-instance collegiate panel cases rose from 286.9 days in 2020 to 394.9 days in 2024 — an increase of 108 days. The average processing time at appellate high courts stood at 10.5 months as of 2024, a level largely unchanged for several years. At the Supreme Court, civil case processing times — including repeat filings by the same litigant — grew from 7.9 months in 2023 to 12.6 months last year.
Analysts say trial delays are linked not only to the shortage of judges but also to a growing tendency for cases that could be resolved without litigation to pour into the courts. According to the Monthly Court Statistics Bulletin, the number of new civil first-instance filings rose from 740,000 in 2022 to 800,000 last year.
The surge in civil litigation has also driven a rapid increase in court filing fee revenue. Filing fees are charges levied when a lawsuit is initiated. According to the 2025 Judicial Yearbook released on the 27th, civil litigation filing fee revenue reached 346.5 billion won in 2024, up 9.1% from the previous year. Civil litigation accounted for 91.7% of total filing fee revenue. Civil filing fee revenue has exceeded 300 billion won for two consecutive years since 2023, rising 70.9 billion won (25.7%) from 275.6 billion won in 2022.
The increase in filing fee revenue is interpreted as a direct consequence of the growing number of civil lawsuits. The problem, however, is that while court revenue is rising as cases flood in, trials themselves are taking longer. The total authorized number of judges was effectively frozen at 3,214 from 2014 through 2024. The headcount is set to increase to 3,584 from last year through 2029, but considerable concern remains that staffing will still fall short.
According to an empirical study on trial workload conditions and judges' working environments published by the Judicial Policy Research Institute in September last year, a survey of sitting judges found that the most frequently cited appropriate scale of increase — including Supreme Court justices, judges at all court levels, and judicial research officials — was around 600. Some analyses suggested that as many as 1,000 additional judges should be considered, based on a back-calculation of the time needed to clear excessive caseloads.
"Cases keep increasing but judicial staffing has barely grown, making prolonged litigation worse. As final rulings take longer, the burden on litigants is also mounting," said Hwang Yong, managing partner at law firm Sangrim. "Extended litigation is particularly disadvantageous for those with fewer financial resources, so countermeasures are urgently needed."
