You've Been Served: First 30 Days

A thick envelope arrives by registered mail — or your spouse signs for it while you are at work. Inside is a stack of Korean documents with a court’s name at the top and your name rendered in Hangul. Someone is suing you, or says the court has already told you to pay. What you do in the next few weeks decides whether this becomes a defended case or a judgment entered without you in the room.

The core document is the sojang (소장) — the complaint that opens a civil lawsuit. But two other documents arrive the same way, look similar, and carry shorter deadlines. The governing rules are in the Civil Procedure Act (민사소송법) and, for small claims, the Trial of Small Claims Act (소액사건심판법).

What matters is the clock — and knowing which clock you are on. This guide covers how to tell the documents apart, what “served” legally means, what the answer has to do, what happens if you do nothing, and the first 30 days in working order.

1. Which paper did you receive?

Three documents account for most court mail that lands on a defendant, and they are answered differently. Match yours before doing anything else — the title at the top of the first page decides your deadline.

The pattern to notice: the two short-deadline documents are issued without anyone having heard your side. They are designed to become final through silence. A timely objection to either one costs little and converts the matter into an ordinary case where both sides are heard — which is exactly why the objection window is short.

2. What “served” actually means

Your deadline runs from the day of service (songdal) (송달) — the formal delivery of the papers — not from the day you personally sat down and read them. Three rules surprise people:

• You are not the only valid recipient. If the mail carrier cannot hand the papers to you at your address, delivery to a cohabiting family member — or, at a workplace, to a colleague or staff member capable of understanding what it is — can count as service on you (art. 186). The clock starts even if that person leaves the envelope on a shelf.
• Refusing the envelope does not help. Where receipt is refused without justifiable reason, the documents can simply be left at the place of service — and service is complete (art. 186(3)).
• The court can eventually proceed without reaching you at all. If your address cannot be established, service can be made by public notice (gongsi songdal) (공시송달) — posting at the court — and the case moves on without you ever touching the papers. This is how people discover judgments years later, when an account is frozen. Section 4 covers the narrow way back.

The practical rule for foreign residents: keep your registered address current, and treat anything court-shaped that reaches anyone in your household as if it were handed to you personally, on that date. Note the delivery date somewhere you cannot lose it — photograph the envelope and the postal slip.

3. The 30-day answer

For a complaint, the response is an answer (dapbyeonseo) (답변서)filed with the court — in Korean — within 30 days of service (art. 256). A real answer does three things: states which of the plaintiff’s factual allegations you admit and which you deny, sets out your version with the grounds, and attaches or identifies your evidence. Filing can be done on paper or through the electronic litigation system.

Two practical points inside that. First, precision beats volume: the complaint is a numbered list of factual claims, and the answer works through them — admitted, denied, unknown — before telling your story. Blanket outrage (“everything is a lie”) reads worse and does less than three clean denials with documents behind them. Second, if the deadline is closing in, a short answer that clearly disputes the claim preserves your position — it takes the no-hearing judgment off the table, and the detailed argument can follow in preparatory briefs. That is a stopgap, not a strategy; use the time it buys.

The complaint is a numbered list of factual claims; the answer takes a position on each one — admitted, denied, or unknown — and the case is then fought over the denials.

On language: there is no English track. The complaint, your answer, the hearings, and the judgment all run in Korean, and arranging translation of what you receive — and of what you file — is on you. Budget for that early rather than after a deadline has been spent on deciphering.

4. If you do nothing

Silence is not neutral. If no answer is filed within the 30 days, the court may deem the claim’s factual basis admitted and enter judgment without holding a hearing (art. 257) — a no-hearing judgment (무변론판결). You will receive that judgment by the same service rules as the complaint, and if no appeal is filed within 2 weeks of its service (art. 396), it becomes final. After that, the plaintiff can enforce: bank accounts, wages, deposits, property.

The escape hatches are real but narrow, and each is a worse position than answering on time. An answer disputing the claim filed before the judgment is actually pronounced still blocks the no-hearing route (art. 257 proviso). After judgment, the 2-week appeal is the ordinary correction. And where you genuinely never knew — a public-notice judgment discovered when your account froze — a late appeal (chuwan hangso) (추완항소) may be available within 2 weeks of the day the obstacle ended, which in practice means the day you actually learned of the judgment (art. 173). Those cases turn on proving what you knew and when — records again.

5. The first 30 days, in order

1. 1

   Fix the dates — today

   Photograph the envelope, the delivery slip, and every page. Establish the exact service date (including service on a family member) and calendar the deadline for your document type from section 1.
2. 2

   Identify the document and the claim

   Complaint, payment order, or performance recommendation — then have the substance translated so you know exactly what is alleged, by whom, and for how much.
3. 3

   Gather your side of the paper

   Contracts, transfers, receipts, messages with the plaintiff. Korean civil cases are decided overwhelmingly on documents — what you can show matters more than what you can explain.
4. 4

   Decide who handles it

   Objections and simple answers can be filed by the party directly; whether self-handling is wise depends on the amount and the complexity. Decide deliberately — with enough days left to change course.
5. 5

   File within the deadline

   The answer or objection, in Korean, on paper or electronically. Keep the filing receipt.
6. 6

   Expect settlement tracks — they are normal

   Courts actively route civil cases toward mediation (조정) and issue settlement recommendation decisions, which themselves become final unless objected to within 2 weeks. Engaging with these is standard practice, not weakness.

6. Common mistakes

• “It’s obviously a misunderstanding, so I’ll ignore it.” The court cannot see that it is a misunderstanding unless you file it. Absurd claims win by default exactly as often as strong ones.
• Assuming leaving Korea ends the case. It does not. The case can proceed — by service abroad or ultimately by public notice — and the judgment waits for your return, your Korean accounts, or cross-border enforcement. Departure changes logistics, not liability.
• Missing that someone else was served for you. Ask your household and workplace whether anything court-shaped arrived — the deadline may already be running.
• Spending the 30 days on translation and shock. The deadline consumes badly. Getting the document identified and translated is a first-week task, not a fourth-week one.
• Signing whatever resolves it fastest. A settlement reached under deadline panic binds like any other. If you are going to concede, concede knowingly — the numbers, the interest, the costs.

Start by establishing two facts: what the document is, and what date it was served. Every decision after that has a number attached to it.

Frequently asked questions

Written by Attorney Chulho Choi (SOL & LUNA / Law Firm Myeong, KBA-registered specialist in Civil and Criminal Law). Reviewed as of August 2026. Updated when laws change.