민사소액사건에 있어서 조기조정제도의 활용에 관한 연구

In South Korea, the court solves small civil cases in a fast and simple manner compared with the general civil proceedings by making several special cases based on the Trial of Small Claims Act. The scope of small claims was expanded to 30 million won after the revision of Article 1, Clause 2 of Trial of Small Claims Act in January, 2017. The expansion will increase the number of cases to be treated as small civil claims to a greater degree than in the past when the scope was 20 million won. That is, small civil cases accounted for approximately 70% of entire civil cases on merits until 2016, and the percentage of civil cases to be categorized as small claims will rise in 2017. It is not certain, though, whether the court will solve much more civil cases to be categorized as small claims in a fast and simple manner based on the Trial of Small Claims Act starting in 2017. This study, however, decided to review whether the "Early Mediation" system, which has been introduced by some courts including the Seoul Central District Court as a procedure to resolve dispute fast, could be a useful system to address small claims. The "Early Mediation" system sends a case to a mediation member that will lead the mediation process for a short period of time with no intervention from the court before the court on merits determines the date of pleading(preparation) or opens a trial full-blown. Using the system, mediation members closely review a case and figure out its inside stories fully before proposing the best solution to the small civil case. They can play a role as a very useful means of resolving disputes. There should be, of course, human and physical conditions supported by the court to enable early mediation so that the system can serve as a major system to address small claims. The system itself, which is used by some courts, is not expanded and activated fully due to the lack of human and physical conditions at the court level. The system is also criticized for its fundamental problem of trying mediation with the concerned matters or issues not figured out fully in some cases. The current Early Mediation system has many limitations, being implemented with no direct legal grounds. Given the advantages of the system including fast speed and the need to resolve a dispute smoothly between the concerned parties at the first trial according to Article 3 of Trial of Small Claims Act, it is required to apply the framework of the system first to small civil cases and treat many of such cases with high speed. These advantages should be combined with the original merit of the system, which allows the concerned parties to solve their disputes as the subjects, so that the system can be implemented at least in small civil cases.