Special cases

In Korea, how to legally deal with special cases (처리특례법/處理特例法) concerning traffic accidents (교통사고/交通事故), medical accidents (의료사고/醫療事故), domestic violence (가정폭력/家庭暴力), public servant crime (공무원범죄/公務員犯罪), illegal political funds (정치자금/政治資金), etc. has been publicly discussed and finally legislated into the relevant special acts.

Take an example of the Act on Special Cases concerning Traffic Accidents (교통사고처리특례법), which is the special act of the Criminal Act in terms of injury cases. This act purports to expedite the compensation of traffic victims and to resolve the legal instability and inconvenience to citizens arising out of traffic accidents.

Key words
special case, traffic accident, medical accident, domestic violence, sexual violence

Traffic accidents
When a driver committed a traffic accident injuring a person or persons on business negligence or gross negligence, the Act on Special Cases concerning Traffic Accidents may release the driver from the criminal punishment on the following conditions in accordance with the Road Traffic Act (도로교통법):
 * No hit-and-run;
 * No manslaughter;
 * The accident did not take place as a result of 11 traffic rule violations such as violation of traffic sign, driving over centerline, overspeed exceeding 20km/h, overtaking violation, rail road crossing violation, crossing pedestrian protection violation, driving without license, drunk driving, sidewalk trespassing, school zone violation, etc.; and
 * The driver has agreed on compensation with the victim(s); or
 * The driver has entered into qualified car insurance policy or mutual aid association.

Since February 2009, the car accident should not cause serious injury to victims because the Constitutional Court ruled Paragraph 1 Article 4 of the Act unconstitutional for the purpose of sufficient protection of car accident victims.

Accordingly, the driver could be relieved from criminial punishment only when the victim is not seriously injured and the accident does not fall within the scope of the above-mentioned cases.

Medical accidents
After a long discussion how to deal with medical accidents, on April 7, 2011, the Act concerning the Medical Accident Remedy and Medical Dispute Mediation (의료사고 피해구제 및 의료분쟁 조정 등에 관한 법률) was promulgated in April 2011 and came into force one year later with one exception that medical service providers were relieved from criminal indictment on condition of the successful medical dispute mediation as from April 8, 2013.

Domestic violence
In general, the domesti violence offender is in need of special treatment in terms of criminal procedure and corrective measures in relation to the offender's environments and attitudes toward victim.

To this end, the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment, etc. of Crimes of Domestic Violence (가정폭력범죄의 처벌 등에 관한 특례법) has been enacted along with the Act on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection, etc. of Victims (가정폭력방지 및 피해자보호 등에 관한 법률). The latter act is to prevent domestic violence and to protect and support victims thereof.