Settlement (합의) in Criminal Cases

Somewhere early in a Korean criminal case — from a lawyer, an investigator, or a Korean-speaking friend — you will hear the word hapui (합의). Understanding hapui settlement in a Korean criminal case is genuinely foreign to most English-speaking readers: a private agreement with the victim, usually involving money, that the state openly takes into account when deciding what happens to you.

It is not a bribe and it is not a plea bargain. Korean criminal practice treats repairing the victim’s harm as a core measure of how a case should end, and settlement is the standard proof of repair. The system is built to expect it: prosecutors ask whether you have settled, and sentencing takes the circumstances after the offense into account (Criminal Act art. 51).

What matters is knowing which of two very different roles a settlement plays in your case — case-ending or merely case-shaping — and timing it accordingly. This guide covers both, plus the mechanics, the deadline, and the standard mistakes.

1. What hapui is

A hapui is a civil contract: the suspect (or defendant) compensates the victim, and the victim signs a document — commonly called a statement of no desire for punishment (처벌불원서) — declaring that they have settled, do not wish the person punished, and (typically) waive further civil claims. That document is then filed with whoever currently holds the case: police, prosecutor, or court.

The settlement itself happens entirely outside the courtroom. No judge approves it, no prosecutor signs it. Its power comes from what the system does with it afterward — and that depends on the offense.

2. When settlement ends the case — and when it only helps

The first question to ask about any settlement strategy is therefore: which row am I in? In the first two, a settlement is close to the whole game and its deadline is absolute. In the third, it is a powerful mitigating card to be played at the right moment — and paying for it does not entitle you to any particular outcome.

3. What a settlement agreement contains

• The parties and the case — identified precisely enough to match the police or court file.
• The amount and payment terms — almost always paid in full at signing; promises to pay later make weak settlements.
• The no-punishment clause— the victim’s declaration that they do not wish the suspect punished, the sentence the criminal file cares about.
• A waiver of further claims — civil and criminal, so the same incident cannot be re-monetized later.
• Practical clauses — confidentiality, no-contact, and who submits the document to the authorities, and when.

In practice, a settlement comes together in a fairly fixed sequence:

1. 1

   First contact — through counsel

   Your lawyer reaches the victim (or the victim's lawyer), often via the investigator, and confirms whether they are open to settling at all.
2. 2

   Terms are negotiated

   Amount, scope of the waiver, confidentiality and no-contact terms. Expect a few rounds; written drafts beat phone summaries.
3. 3

   Simultaneous exchange

   Payment is transferred and the agreement plus the no-punishment statement are signed in the same sitting, with identity verified.
4. 4

   Filing with the case

   The signed statement is submitted to whoever holds the case — police, prosecutor, or court — so it actually enters the decision.

4. Timing: the decision points and the deadline

A criminal case passes through a series of decisions — the police’s referral decision, the prosecutor’s charging decision, the court’s sentence. A settlement reached before a decision point can shape that decision; one reached after it can only shape the next. Earlier is structurally better, and for the case-ending categories there is a legal cut-off:

Start by confirming with your lawyer which category your offense falls into — that single fact sets both the deadline and the negotiating leverage on each side.

5. How much money is a settlement?

There is no table and no formula. Amounts turn on the seriousness of the harm, medical costs and lost income where there is injury, the strength of the evidence, how badly each side needs the settlement, and what the suspect can actually pay. The victim is not obliged to settle at all, which is their leverage; the defendant’s leverage is that a refused reasonable offer can still be shown to the court by other means (section 6).

Be wary of anchoring on numbers from internet forums — amounts in reported anecdotes vary wildly with facts that rarely travel with the number. A lawyer who handles criminal work in your region can give you a realistic band for your specific situation, and a realistic band is the single most useful input to this negotiation.

6. If the victim won’t settle: the criminal deposit

A criminal deposit is filed with the court’s deposit office — since a statutory amendment it can be made even without the victim’s personal details, using the case number instead.

Some victims refuse every offer; some cannot be contacted at all. The fallback is the criminal deposit (형사공탁): paying the compensation into the court’s deposit office for the victim to collect (Deposit Act art. 5-2). A defendant in a pending criminal case may deposit even without knowing the victim’s identity details, identifying them through the case number and court instead.

A deposit is not a settlement — the victim has made no declaration, and courts weigh a deposit more cautiously than a genuine agreement, sometimes asking for the victim’s view. But it converts “he never even tried to make it right” into an objectively recorded attempt at repair, which matters at sentencing. It is the second-best tool, used when the best one is unavailable.

7. Common mistakes

• Contacting the victim directly. An unsolicited apology text from the person under investigation reads as pressure and can create separate legal problems — particularly where the alleged offense is against that person. Route every approach through counsel.
• Paying without the signed statement.Money sent “as a gesture” with paperwork to follow is how people pay twice.
• Signing a scope you didn’t read. As the paying side you want the waiver broad; as a victim signing one, understand you are usually giving up both the criminal complaint and future civil claims in one signature.
• Assuming settlement equals dismissal. Outside the case-ending categories, no one can promise that a settlement produces any specific result — treat anyone who guarantees an outcome for a fee as a red flag.
• Missing the art. 232 deadline. In the case-ending categories, a settlement concluded a week after the first-instance judgment is a very expensive document that changes nothing about the conviction.

Frequently asked questions

If the settlement question has arrived because you were called in for questioning, start with Received a Police Summons — timing a settlement well depends on knowing where your case stands in that sequence.

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.