Lawyer A received 20 million won in fees from a client but delayed drafting the retainer agreement, never even reviewed the investigation records, and neglected the case. He lost the original evidence documents the client had sent, lied that he had been hospitalized, and failed to appear at the witness examination hearing. He was ultimately disbarred through the Ministry of Justice's Attorney Disciplinary Committee.
The Ministry of Justice will strengthen disciplinary action against lawyer advertisements that lure clients with claims such as "guaranteed wins" or "former judge/prosecutor lawyers." The ministry also decided to establish a dedicated investigation team to swiftly and strictly handle lawyers who neglect cases or collect fees without properly performing their duties.
The ministry announced the strengthened attorney discipline measures on the 9th.
False and exaggerated advertising has been rapidly increasing as competition in the legal market intensifies. According to the ministry, disciplinary cases involving lawyers' violations of advertising regulations surged from one case in 2021 to 88 cases last year. Total disciplinary cases rose from 10 to 124 over the same period. Of the 114 disciplinary cases currently pending at the ministry, 79 — more than half — involve advertising violations.
Through its Attorney Disciplinary Committee, the ministry recently found several cases to be in violation of advertising regulations. These included promoting "No. 1 in customer-preferred brand index for three consecutive years" without objective grounds, taking on cases while guaranteeing "over 90% chance of winning" or "99% expected win rate in damages claims" in group chat rooms, and advertising sentence-prediction services while prominently featuring "former judge/prosecutor lawyers." In particular, the ministry determined that displaying a former official's career history could be subject to sanctions if it goes beyond a simple career introduction and implies the exercise of improper influence.
The ministry will also strengthen its response to negligent case handling. It said it upheld heavy disciplinary measures, including suspension and disbarment, against lawyers who neglected lawsuits or pressured clients to give false statements, lawyers who took cases at low fees, effectively performed no work, and threatened clients, lawyers who lost evidence by neglecting cases, and lawyers who used court deposits to pay off personal debts.
Going forward, the ministry plans to establish a principle of prioritizing serious violators, handling cases that pose the greatest risk of additional harm to the public first. To this end, it will move away from the existing practice of reviewing only records handed over by the Korean Bar Association, instead forming a dedicated investigation team to directly verify facts through phone investigations and securing additional materials.
The ministry will also expand its disciplinary review capacity. The Attorney Disciplinary Committee, which previously convened about three times a year, will meet up to six times starting this year, with more cases handled per session. The ministry deliberated and ruled on 97 cases from March to June this year, already exceeding last year's annual total of 85 cases.
"We will continue to strengthen our disciplinary review capacity to create a legal market the public can trust," a Ministry of Justice official said.
