Background
A worker died on the job at a workplace in a tragic accident. Under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, the responsible executive faced possible criminal punishment. Changchun represented the workplace and responded from the earliest stage of the investigation.
What Was at Stake
The Serious Accidents Punishment Act imposes heavy responsibility on the responsible executive when a serious accident occurs. Punishment nonetheless requires that the executive's "intent" or "foreseeability" be established, and that was exactly the issue.
How Changchun Helped
From immediately after the accident, Changchun (attorneys Donghwan Shin and Byungtaek Yoo) made an active evidentiary showing that the responsible executive had neither intent nor foreseeability.
As a result, no executive was booked or indicted at either the labor office or the prosecution stage, and the matter closed with the internal inquiry terminated. The case shows that liability under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act is not unlimited but is judged against the standard of "intent and foreseeability." (Related coverage: Naver News) (Outcomes depend on the facts of each case and may differ.)