Why Are Lawsuits So Difficult To Pursue In S. Korea?
We wanted to highlight our previous post, titled “Why Are Lawsuits So Difficult To Pursue In S. Korea?”
In the run-up to TRC 3, Korean Adoptees may be eager to believe that future class action style lawsuits are possible. Some groups organizing Adoptees to submit their cases to TRC 3 may be hinting that future class action lawsuits are a possibility. However, we want to make Adoptees aware that the Korean lawyers in Korea — who would be the only ones capable of representing Adoptees in supposed class action lawsuits, since they are real lawyers, and not fake ones — have made very clear last year that they were only interested in filing individual civil lawsuits on behalf of Adoptees who received at TRC 2 judgment. Most Adoptees are not aware, but Adoptees are prevented from suing their Korean Adoption Agencies in Korea due to the statute of limitations. ONLY those who receive a TRC 2 or 3 judgment will even be eligible to sue anyone in Korea, since receiving a TRC judgment temporarily stays the statute of limitations. This restriction severely limits who can sue. And even those who may be eligible to sue face not only the high costs of litigation, but the low odds of actually winning their cases.
Please be advised that the Korean law firms which have traditionally sided with Adoptees have only been willing to pursue individual civil lawsuits with any of those of the 56 Korean Adoptees who received judgments from TRC 2 in their cases. The cost of such lawsuits must be completely borne by the Adoptee. Lawyers in Korea at the end of last year specified that such costs could be around $30,000 or more. State compensation claims may cost significantly less, though we are uncertain of those associated legal costs.
TRC unfortunately does not have a built-in compensation system. We just want to prevent Adoptees from getting their hopes up regarding ever receiving compensation from the Korean Adoption Agencies or from the Korean Government. We don’t think it’s realistic to expect that the S. Korean Government is going to open up its coffers to pay millions in damages to all of the various victims groups represented by the TRC investigations. So we are just trying to manage Adoptees’ expectations.
The Korean lawyers made clear that they were not willing to pursue class action lawsuits in their August 26th, 2025 conference, “Significance and Tasks of the TRC’s Human Rights Violation Decision on Intercountry Adoption”. You can watch the conference on YouTube (click the link above).
We also want to highlight that a high profile Korean Adoptee who was de*orted from the U.S. to S. Korea nearly ten years ago recently lost his court battle against Holt on appeal. We believe he may now be being sued by Holt. His case serves as an unfortunate cautionary tale for Korean Adoptees, many of whom dream of filing class action lawsuits against their Korean Adoption Agency, or against the S. Korean Government. Please watch this English subtitled video on YouTube, titled: From Illegal Adoption to Deportation: A Man’s Fight Against the Agency That Sent Him to US.
Unfortunately, the legal system in Korea is designed to make the plaintiff — the one bringing the lawsuit — LOSE. Lawsuits are not the same kind of animal in S. Korea as they are in the West. Please be advised, so that you can have realistic expectations about lawsuits in Korea going forward.
This does NOT mean that other types of justice related reparations should not be pursued by Adoptees. We just want to make sure that no one is given false hope about financial compensation, since we see this as an unlikely outcome from most lawsuits in Korea. We do not think it is any favor to Adoptees to gaslight them into believing that winnable class action lawsuits in Korea will be a realistic possibility.
We know this is a difficult reality to accept, and it’s something we ourselves have struggled with for years. However, based on closely following the case of the high-profile Adoptee who was de*orted from the U.S. to Korea nearly a decade ago, as well as the TRC 2 and 3 investigations, we are simply sharing what we know with fellow Adoptees. We do not believe Adoptees should be gaslighted into holding false hope about the viability of pursuing lawsuits in Korea.
We do not believe that symbolic victories are completely empty. We do encourage Adoptees to pursue justice in their cases, to the extent that they can.
