VISITORS GET FRONT-BENCH VIEW OF U.S. LEGAL SYSTEM

Name after name, charge after charge were called out in courtroom 3 in Toledo Municipal Court.

And although it was a typical day for the busy courtroom, it was a whole new form of the judicial system for several judges who sat in the first row to observe.

A seven-member delegation of court staff and judges from South Korea toured the courthouses of Lucas County yesterday as part of an exchange program to expose court officials from other countries to the U.S. judicial system.

In town for just two days, the judges and court staffers watched the American legal system at work. In particular, they watched lawyers in a civil trial as they selected a jury in Common Pleas Court - a process foreign to the South Korean judges.

"The Korean judicial system has a program for judges and for people related to the court system to have a chance to visit court systems overseas," Jiho Son, a presiding judge in Incheon District Court in Incheon, South Korea, said through interpreter Won Ryu of Perrysburg.

Part of that program, he said, brought the group to Toledo. Next stop, Sioux City, Iowa.

"The first thing they have to do is make a report to the Supreme Court containing what they learned, the experiences they've had," Mr. Ryu said in translating the comments of Judge Yong-Ki Jang of the Gwangju District Court. "Maybe they will try to apply what they've learned."

Common Pleas Court Administrator Don Colby said he was contacted by the National Center for State Courts with the request to host the small delegation. Once here, the group shared information about their judicial system - a combined state and federal system in which judges are appointed - and learned about the American courts.

Mainly, the South Korean visitors were interested in juries, Mr. Colby said.

"Korea doesn't have much of a jury system," he said, adding that the group observed the questioning of jurors prior to selecting a jury in a civil case. "They watched voir dire and they saw how the jury was selected and they watched some of the jury trial."

Common Pleas Judge James Jensen is presiding over a worker's compensation case that went to trial this week. He said the South Korean judges appeared to be fascinated by the way lawyers exclude potential jurors.

"It wasn't particularly the trial they were interested in, it was the process of selecting a jury," Judge Jensen said. "I gather that they have very few jury trials, and I was told that judges can ignore the verdict of the jury."

Although hindered by the language barrier, Judge Jensen said he was able to glean from the foreign judges that their caseload was so heavy that they worked until 11 p.m., six days a week. As for selecting a jury to hear a case, they said they "wouldn't have time to go through the process," Judge Jensen said.

"At least they're looking and are interested in other systems," he added. "Who knows what they will adopt, but at least they're interested."

Contact Erica Blake at:

eblake@theblade.com

or 419-213-2134.

First Published November 18, 2009, 10:58 a.m.