[OSEN=Panseok Park] Celebrities are increasingly involved in lawsuits. However, while everyone knows that a lawsuit has been filed, few people are interested in the outcome of the case. According to lawyers about lawsuits involving celebrities: 

▲ Do celebrities welcome lawsuits? 

Choi Chung Dan, a lawyer at Hanbyul, a law firm that is handling a lawsuit against Korean MC Yoo Jae Suk for the return of his performance fees, says, "Celebrities tend to be more reluctant than the general public because they think it's bad publicity. Therefore, they often settle before filing a lawsuit." 

For celebrities, image is everything. In the case of celebrities, their popularity and name recognition means that they have to be cast in order to work, so once a perception is imprinted on the public, it's hard to erase it, so they tend to try to stop it before it gets to the point of a lawsuit. That's why it's often used to their advantage. 

▲ Does being famous give you an advantage in court: 

Wonik Cho, a lawyer at the law firm Sommyung, dismisses the idea that being famous gives you an advantage in court. "Being a celebrity doesn't make the judges more influenced in their judgment of the case, but because you are a special person, they may look at the case with more interest, but that doesn't mean they are more favorable to you. Sometimes, the more you look at a case, the less favorable it is to a party," he said, explaining his impartiality. 

In addition to that, there are civil cases and criminal cases, and said that celebrity can be considered in criminal cases, especially in sentencing, rather than civil cases. Cho said, "civil case, it only matters whether you have a good lawyer because the court will only judge the facts as alleged by the parties, so the court will not have a particularly biased view. However, criminal proceedings, the judge has the power to inquire and investigate in addition to the facts alleged by the parties, and the sentence is entirely at the discretion of the court, so the demeanor of the defendant and the normal relationship shown throughout the defense may be taken into account in the sentence," he said, noting the difference between civil and criminal proceedings.

▲ Why is the number of celebrity lawsuits increasing?" 

Lee Jae-man of Cheongpa Law Firm, who helped exonerate Joo Byung-jin and is currently defending singer and actor Kim Hyun-joong, cited two main reasons for the recent increase in celebrity lawsuits. First, he said that a social consensus has been formed that celebrities should not suffer unconditionally just because they are celebrities, and since it is the era of social media, if you do not respond quickly to a rumor once it is spread, it will become a fact, so celebrities are actively revealing the facts through trials. 

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The lawyer said, "Recently, the media environment has changed and the number of media outlets has increased, so media outlets are competitively reporting on lawsuits. Therefore, when handling celebrity lawsuits, every little thing is reported, so you have to be concerned not only about winning the case but also about the coverage." 

This is not to say that celebrities should be forgiven for doing wrong, but it is not too late to be criticized and penalized before the outcome of the case. Celebrities are also people with jobs 뿐이다./pps2014@osen.co.kr

[Photo] OSEN DB.