The Hearing Before the West Seoul Court
It was mid-April, and spring was finally beginning to make itself felt.
A phone call came in from Park Woo-chul, who had been upset that he’d missed the Twice Seoul fan con.
"Uncle, have you been well these past few days?"
"Mr. Park Woo-chul, your way of speaking sounds even more deferential than usual."
"E-hem. Of course I have to treat Uncle properly."
I wanted to ask what on earth was going on there, but maybe it was the kind of emotion that a hardcore Oh Ye-ji fan felt toward a celebrity’s family. Something like that.
"And have you been well these past few days?"
"Same as always. Suffering because I couldn’t see Twice, then powering back up the second their behind-the-scenes content drops."
He was baring his soul, but I couldn’t relate at all.
"But, Uncle... did you file a complaint against Jo Ji-han? You sent a certified letter before, didn’t you?"
"I filed a civil lawsuit."
Strictly speaking, filing a complaint referred to criminal proceedings, but ordinary people used it to mean any kind of lawsuit, civil or criminal. People like Park Woo-chul.
There was no point correcting him every time, so I answered that I’d filed a civil suit.
"I thought so. I said I’d represent you."
"Did something happen?"
"At the end of March, Jo Ji-han had a one-on-one meeting with the head of the variety department. But things blew up in the department head’s office. I honestly thought the guy had gone completely insane."
"I heard he was on brotherly terms with the variety department head, but if he was throwing things around and making a scene, I suppose they’ve cut ties."
"It’s totally over. I heard the drama department and the variety department were fighting for influence, but with no hit shows in the lineup, the variety department doesn’t exactly have much power."
Which meant Jo Ji-han had lost his connections at the station.
Han Yu-chan must have pulled some strings when Twice’s cameo contract was being negotiated.
"So I made a guess. Jo Ji-han asked the head for something, and then the head got chewed out by the drama department and this mess happened, right?"
Apparently there were rumors floating around the station already.
I should pass this along to Han Yu-chan separately.
"This is connected to Twice, right? That’s why Jo Ji-han got tossed aside. Right?"
He’s really worked up.
"That may well be the case."
"Hah! So that’s why you told me not to give a press conference. Brilliant!"
"What have I done, really? The station took care of it on its own."
It had only been possible because Han Yu-chan worked behind the scenes, the drama department wanted it, and Twice was massively popular.
I just helped from the sidelines.
"Thanks to you, I’ve been appointed main PD for Come On, Let's Work—temporarily, of course."
"Oh? Then you’ll be debuting as a producer with your own new show soon?"
"Heh, it’s practically the same thing. The department head told me I’ll be in charge of the program all the way to the end."
"Congratulations."
He asked me to appear once more on Come On, Let's Work after Twice’s overseas concert was over.
This time, he said, they’d roll out the red carpet for filming.
The reason he was saying this to someone with no authority was probably that he felt awkward about having gotten the opportunity thanks to Twice.
In any case, after saying I’d ask Yuria about it, I ended the call.
"So the Jo Ji-han matter can proceed like this, then."
On March 27, after filing the civil suit against Han Yu-chan of Yuria Entertainment as the plaintiff, the defendant still hadn’t submitted a written response.
It seemed Jo Ji-han’s side wanted to drag things out as long as possible through their lawyer.
I wish it could move as quickly as the Oh Yoon-sik case.
I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Hoping next time it would move swiftly, I opened the KakaoTalk message Han Yu-chan had sent earlier.
As you said, Attorney Cha, pressure is coming at me through C9in.
Now that we’ve taken a hard line, they’re putting pressure on the legal team too.
Attorney Cha, are you all right?
"I’m only the lawyer whose name is on the paperwork, so I guess they haven’t done anything yet."
If anything strange happens, contact me right away. I’ll assign security to you.
I was only going back and forth between the Goto office for the time being, so I thanked him and closed my smartphone.
A person who could apply pressure through C9in, the parent company.
The chairman I’d seen through psychometry? Or that person?
I didn’t know who it was, but it looked as if they were applying pressure through Jo Ji-han.
"Someone with real influence in the entertainment industry, huh?"
I wanted to see his face, no matter what it took. If he dropped something along the way, even better.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Time passed, and on May 3, the defendant’s written response was finally submitted.
"They used every last day of the deadline to file it. They must have bought themselves a lot of time."
A defendant is supposed to submit a written response within thirty days of receiving the complaint.
But in practice, if the lawyer explains, "Due to special circumstances, the response is taking a little longer to prepare, but we will submit it by such-and-such date," the court will often allow it.
The court and the lawyers were all overloaded with work, so deadlines weren’t always enforced strictly.
Of course, under the Civil Procedure Act, if the defendant failed to submit a response within thirty days, the plaintiff’s allegations in the complaint could be deemed admitted.
In other words—
I thought we might get a default judgment. What a pity.
At least one thing had been confirmed.
The assigned panel was applying the law more loosely than other divisions.
I told Team Leader Yoo I-hwan right away and submitted evidence along with our preparatory brief.
They may have expected us to respond quickly, but they wouldn’t be able to drag this out much longer.
"Yuria is in Mapo-gu, and Jo Ji-han’s home is in Mapo-gu too, so the West Seoul jurisdiction makes sense."
With less on its docket than the Seoul Central District Court, it would probably be three or four months at most before a hearing date was set.
But then—
On June 24, when Twice returned to Korea to release their new song, the preparatory hearing was scheduled.
A preparatory hearing is a session held in advance so that each side’s arguments and evidence can be organized efficiently before the main trial.
"I thought it would be August or September at the earliest before the trial schedule was set. I’ve got lucky."
Maybe because it was a mission, things were moving quickly.
There was no note at the bottom of the mission saying it would proceed swiftly, the way there had been in Ye-ji’s parents’ case, but still—
It’s better to think positively.
After discussing things with Team Leader Yoo I-hwan, we agreed to meet in front of the Seoul Western District Court that day.
I headed for Aewha Station on Line 5.
The Seoul Western District Court was a place where, in the past, even the court president had gotten involved in covering up a judicial corruption scandal by leaking investigative secrets.
Corruption had existed elsewhere too, of course, but cases where evidence showed that the court had actively intervened in the trial were rare.
In a way, it probably made sense: as long as there was no visible evidence and the trial seemed to proceed normally, it was enough.
Even if you committed a crime, you could simply hand down a not-guilty verdict.
That was the power of the court.
"It’s not much different now. I wonder what the person who tried to pressure C9in will do."
In a world where some judges rendered fair judgments and others were swallowed by black money, there was no telling what might happen.
Still, I prayed that this time the panel would rule fairly.
"414, there it is."
I entered the courtroom and greeted Team Leader Yoo.
"This is a civil bench courtroom, and there’s only one seat for the lawyers. I’ll take the spectator gallery."
"Then I’ll sit at counsel table today."
"Please do."
I sat just behind him in the gallery and reviewed the documents.
Thud, thud.
"All rise."
At the court officer’s words, everyone stood.
The judges entered, looked around, and bowed in greeting.
Yang Seung-nam? He was assigned as the associate judge?
The associate judge was the senior one compared to the presiding panel judge.
The associate judge sitting today was someone well known among lawyers.
He was what people in the profession called a "body seat" judge—someone who simply lent his body as a substitute to make up the numbers.
You’d think, They still do that? but because there was a shortage of judges, it happened from time to time.
Still, it was rare for someone to do it full-time, and I was curious how he’d ended up in that role.
There were even rumors that he did it because he didn’t want to write judgments.
Judging by the rulings he wrote, he was less a career-dropout judge than a man who had given up on promotion—or maybe even on prestige itself.
I have no idea what kind of bomb he’s about to drop.
This hearing didn’t look like it would be easy either.
The presiding judge cleared his throat and spoke.
"We will now begin proceedings in Case No. 2024Gahap91234 before Civil Division 14 of the Seoul Western District Court, concerning defamation and damages."
This case was being handled by the civil bench.
With the presiding chief judge in charge, the left and right associate judges sat with him.
"First, I’ll confirm appearances. Has the plaintiff’s counsel appeared?"
"Plaintiff’s counsel Yoo I-hwan, Your Honor."
"Defense counsel?"
"Defense counsel Attorney Lee Joo-heon, Your Honor."
Perhaps because they expected the case to drag on, they confirmed appearances quickly and moved on.
The presiding judge flipped through the file.
"Plaintiff’s counsel submitted the complaint on March 27, 2024. On May 9, 2024, you submitted your preparatory brief and all statements, and you submitted Plaintiff’s Exhibits 1 through 4."
"Yes."
"Defense counsel submitted a written response on May 3, 2024. On June 5, 2024, you submitted your preparatory brief and all statements, and you submitted Defendant’s Exhibits 1 through 3."
"Yes."
"Plaintiff’s counsel, Attorney Yoo I-hwan, please state the plaintiff’s position."
Team Leader Yoo stood.
Since it had been a while since he last appeared in court, he looked a little stiff.
Even the part where he said the plaintiff was Han Yu-chan, CEO of Yuria Entertainment, sounded a little different.
Because I could feel how sincere he was.
"In the broadcast of Come On, Let's Work that aired on February 2, 2024, the program portrayed the lives of workers in the current entertainment industry."
"However, in this program, the interview with Kim Yo-gi, who was hired as a performance-planning staff member at the plaintiff’s company and has been treated appropriately, was staged in a way that distorted the facts."
"As a result, the plaintiff’s parent company, C9in, suffered a slight drop in stock price, and the image of its representative artist, the girl group Twice, was damaged."
"A broadcast appearance that had originally been scheduled was also canceled."
"In addition, the plaintiff suffered severe damage, including the cancellation of a fan concert in Indonesia and advertising contracts. Accordingly, we are claiming 500 million won in compensation for defamation and property damage."
The presiding judge turned his head.
"Defense counsel, Attorney Lee Joo-heon, please state the defendant’s position."
"Yes."
Lee Joo-heon.
From what I’d found out, he was a lawyer who mainly handled entertainment cases.
I wonder how capable he is.
"The defendant, Jo Ji-han, as the PD of the AB Channel program Come On, Let's Work, never intended to depict the February 2 episode in a way that distorted the facts."
"Of course, as is common in informational variety programming, certain parts may have been emphasized. However, it is difficult to say that this caused any decline in stock value for the plaintiff’s parent company, C9in, or defamed the girl group’s reputation."
"Furthermore, since no production choices were made that would damage Twice’s image, it is hard to see why any broadcast appearance would have been canceled because of this."
"Twice is currently the busiest girl group in Korea, so the schedule could easily have been canceled for timing reasons. The same applies to the Indonesia concert and the advertisements. Therefore, the defendant has no obligation to compensate for any of it."
What an absolutely shameless bastard.
"Understood. I take this case to concern whether compensation is required for the defamation of Yuria’s representative and the resulting property damage caused by Come On, Let's Work aired on AB Channel on February 2. Attorney Yoo I-hwan?"
"Yes."
"Do you wish to request witnesses?"
"Yes. I’d like to call Ms. Kim Yo-gi, who worked at the plaintiff’s company, and Ms. Na Min-young, who handled the Indonesia concert project."
The presiding judge checked the file and then said,
"Witnesses accepted."
He immediately asked the defense whether they also wished to call witnesses.
"I request labor consultant Ki Do-seop, who advised Ms. Kim Yo-gi at the time regarding her workplace injury."
"Accepted."
Now it was time for the presiding judge to set the trial date.
"It’s obvious how this is going to go, so why didn’t you just make today the hearing date, Your Honor? I wonder what else our judge was hoping to eat up by setting a preparatory hearing."
Associate Judge Yang Seung-nam threw out a bomb in the style of mutual destruction.