Exploring Divorce by Mediation in Korea: An Amicable Alternative
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Divorce doesn’t always have to be a battleground. Explore ‘Divorce by Mediation’ in Korea, a potentially smoother path to ending a marriage, where agreement is reached not through public trial, but through confidential court mediation.
Divorce lawsuit (divorce by trial) is initiated when one of the spouses requests a divorce from the spouse who is at fault for the marriage breakdown. Depending on whether the other spouse is directly responsible for the marriage breakdown, the lawsuit can be accepted or dismissed. Before the acute confrontation, the process can take anywhere from several months to several years.
If the parties both want a divorce and are in concord regarding custody and property division-related issues, there is no need to file a lawsuit and instead, divorce by agreement can be chosen. However, the spouses should remember that oral agreements have no legal effect, and there is a chance that the other party changes his or her mind later on or does not fulfill the obligations.
If so, then what should spouses do if they want a divorce but at the same time want to avoid difficult and expensive litigation, and some of the matters are yet to be settled? Apart from the commonly known divorce lawsuit and divorce by agreement, there is a third way to get divorced, called “divorce by mediation”.
Divorce in Korean Family Court- Mediation Divorce
Divorce by mediation is a procedure when a divorce is reached not through a public trial, but through mediation in court, which is not open to the public. A family court listens to the opinions of the spouses who filed an application for divorce by mediation and then mediates the elements of the issue after having collected various information about the situation. Property division, mental damages, custody, and child support are discussed throughout the process, and the parties do not have to attend the court if they hire attorneys, which is a feature of this type of divorce.
If the parties get divorced by mediation, they do not have to engage in long and complicated litigation. You can see the information about divorce proceeding guidelines for foreigners in Seoul Family Court Above all, there is no long consideration period that is compulsory in the case of a divorce by agreement, so the divorce can be established right away, which is an advantage of divorces by mediation. Because the process is not as open to the public as a trial would, and the parties do not have to attend the court, celebrities, famous people, and other people known to the public, usually undergo this type of divorce by hiring attorneys.
Available Options to Foreigners or a Person staying abroad
This method of getting divorced simply and amicably by hiring an attorney will be very useful for those who do not need to burden themselves with a divorce by trial that entails long waiting and expensive legal fees, cannot get divorced by agreement while staying in Korea and attending the court several times, or those who cannot attend a court because both spouses reside in different countries.
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