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with information on the process for getting help from a village lawyer

The Village Lawyer system, which provides counseling services for disputes in regions without attorneys, is slowly finding its footing.

Despite their placid exteriors, many of South Korea’s farming villages are harboring disputes over matters such as farm road and waterway usage, farmland usage contracts, international marriages and child-rearing, family land ownership, and farming association articles. Traditionally, parties have had to travel all the way to the cities to find attorneys. That, combined with the psychological burden of spending so much time and money, has left many feeling like they are sitting on a time bomb.

The Village Lawyer system (mabyun.blog.me) was introduced by the Korean Bar Association (KBA) in June 2013 to help address the legal blind spot. Other contributions came from the Ministry of Justice and local administrative units who supported its aims.

Today, on the eve of its second anniversary, a total of 1,501 village lawyers are working in South Korea’s 1,412 townships. The KBA has taken member requests to commission attorneys, providing telephone numbers and email addresses for the different regions on its website. The village lawyers offer free remote counseling to local residents as a way of donating their skills. Those who visit townships in person for counseling receive transportation reimbursement or 50,000-won (US$45) traveling fees from the KBA.

Village lawyers have provided counseling services on a total of 710 cases to date, including 213 in 2013, 277 in 2014, and 220 this year. The addition of minor cases or those immediately resolved after counseling - which are not reported to the KBA - would double or triple the number, the KBA said.

On May 28, the Ministry of Justice held a local briefing on the village lawyer system at Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office for village heads and public servants in Gokseong, Yeonggwang, and other counties. In all, it is planning around fifty local visits this year to help establish the system quickly.

Local administrative units are also building contact networks between the attorneys and public servants in the regions and working to inform residents on how to use the system.

“We’re living in an era today where there are 20,000 attorneys, but 85% of them are located in Seoul or one of the six metropolitan cities,” said Kang Hyeon-muk of the KBA’s project planning division.

“The village lawyer system exists to protect the rights of residents in farming communities, and we’re hoping more people will find out about it and use it,” Kang added.

By Ahn Gwan-ok, Gwangju correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]