Hankyung’s contract termination court session to begin in 2010, will regain freedom earliest by March 2010

Sina Entertainment

December 30th afternoon, recently SJ(M) leader Hankyung’s contract termination lawsuit against SM has created an uproar after the media reported of the issue. Sina Entertainment has contacted Hankyung’s case representative Attorney Lee this afternoon for an exclusive dialogue, Attorney Lee revealed that Hankyung has submitted a plead for ‘Effective Suspension of Contract Agreement’ and ‘Contract invalid litigation’ to the court. It is learned that court session will be held on January 8th 2010 in South Korea. To prevent SM from using the delay tactics, Hankyung has especially put forth an “Effective Suspension of Contract Agreement’ plead, if the court approves of the agreement, the earliest Hankyung will regain freedom is by March 2010.

Court session for appeals submitted by Hankyung to commence on January 8th
Lately there are conjectures regarding Hankyung’s lawsuit against SM, Hankyung’s Chinese representative Attorney Lee accepted an exclusive dialogue with Sina Entertainment this afternoon, giving an official statement on this matter for the first time. Attorney Lee revealed that Hankyung has recently submitted two applications to the Seoul Central District Court, including ‘Effective Suspension of Contract Agreement’ and ‘Contract Invalid Litigation’. Made up of both Chinese and Korean attorneys, the attorney group has began collecting evidence for each application, and combining with past celebrities’ termination cases with SM for defence preparation. Court session will officially commence on 8th January next year in Seoul Central District Court, Hankyung himself will not be present, and the attorney group will be representing him in court. Attorney Lee expressed that as this case is more complex by nature, therefore it is not possible to predict the chances of winning now.

Regaining freedom as early as March 2010
According to Korean Law, when the plaintiff made a contract invalid litigation, proceedings usually need to go through a three-step trial; the first trial, second trial and third trial. The first and second trials need a period of 4-8 months each, while the third trial has no explicit period, it may even take more than 8 months. In order to prevent SM from using the delay tactics, Hankyung has applied for the ‘Effective Suspension of Contract Agreement’ to the Seoul Central District Court at the same time, ruling for this plead would be known as early as March or April 2010. This also means that if the appeal is successful, Hankyung would be able to regain freedom in advance by March 2010.

Temporary refused to come into contact with the company while resting
The media has reported the various unfair clauses in Hankyung’s contract with SM previously, Attorney Lee expressed agreement that the media’s surmise has “a certain degree of basis.” He revealed that at the moment Hankyung is resting and will not attend any performing activities for now. On one hand Hankyung himself has felt that his body is not well and needs some time to recuperate, not coming into contact with the company is due to trepidation of the arising of unnecessary disputes; on the other hand as he has already submitted the lawsuit to the court, the relationship with the company has somewhat became awkward, if Hankyung were to attend activities arranged by SM, this may cause unnecessary surmises to arise, therefore his attorney group has advised him to not attend any activities organised by SM temporarily. As for advertisements, Attorney Lee expressed that if it is not together with SJ, he may consider accepting if the shooting is only him alone.

Source: Sina
translated by viragis@sj-world.net