My brother's "warrant hearing" in Korea is tomorrow and we're in the UK — what does that hearing decide, and can we do anything in 24 hours?

It is not a trial and it does not decide guilt. The hearing decides one thing: whether your brother is detained while the investigation and any trial proceed, or released to face them from outside. That single decision shapes everything after it, and it is decided tomorrow afternoon on the strength of what a lawyer can put in front of the judge — which means twenty-four hours is enough time to matter, and a duty lawyer who meets him thirty minutes before is not the same as retained counsel who visits him tonight. Spend the money on that.

What this is under Korean law

A fight leaving another person with a broken jaw is investigated as bodily injury (상해, sanghae) under Article 257 of the Criminal Act — up to seven years' imprisonment — and, where the injury is serious enough to cause lasting impairment, as grievous bodily injury under Article 258, which carries a minimum term. A jaw fracture typically sits at the serious end of Article 257. Defense of another (정당방위, jeongdang bangwi) exists in Korean law and is construed narrowly: the response must be necessary and proportionate to an ongoing attack. "He hit her first" is the beginning of that argument, not the end of it, and CCTV will decide how far it goes.

The warrant hearing

After an arrest, police must release the suspect or apply to a court for a detention warrant (구속영장, gusok yeongjang) within 48 hours. The court then holds a hearing (영장실질심사, yeongjang siljil simsa) at which the judge questions the suspect in person and hears his lawyer. The judge is weighing the seriousness of the offense, the strength of the evidence, and — above all — the risk that the suspect will flee or interfere with evidence. If the warrant is denied, your brother goes home and the case continues without detention. If granted, police may hold him up to ten days, the prosecutor up to a further ten, extendable once, before indictment; if indicted, detention can continue through trial for months.

For a foreign national, "flight risk" is the prosecutor's main argument, and it is answered with facts: two years' employment, a fixed address, a partner in Korea, a passport that can be surrendered, family who will guarantee attendance, and a defense — the intervention — that makes the case one worth staying to contest. Those facts have to reach the judge through counsel, on paper, before the hearing.

What the family can do from abroad

Under Article 30 of the Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법), a suspect's siblings and lineal relatives may appoint defense counsel independently. You can retain a lawyer tonight, from the UK, without his signature. Retained counsel can visit him at the station (접견, jeopgyeon) before the hearing, prepare him, submit a written opinion with supporting documents, and appear. The duty lawyer is a real lawyer, appointed for the hearing, typically without English and without time; retaining counsel does not offend anyone.

His girlfriend should give counsel her account of the start of the fight in writing tonight; she is the defense's main witness, and she should not contact the injured man or his family.

Call the embassy: he is entitled to consular notification under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. The consulate can visit and confirm his treatment; it does not provide representation.

His situation as a foreign national

Detention does not end an E-7, but a long detention and any conviction are facts the Immigration Office weighs, and serious violent offenses appear among the grounds for deportation review. That is for later; it is decided by the Immigration Office, not the criminal court, and we do not predict it. MEGA X handles the criminal case; where it affects status, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of the defense.

What to do now, and what not to do

Tonight: retain counsel; send every fact you have — the girlfriend's account, his employment details, his address, any photographs of her injuries. Do not have anyone contact the injured man's side; a settlement (합의, hapui) will matter enormously later and it must be opened by counsel, not by a frightened family. Do not book flights for tomorrow; book for the days after, when visits and support are possible whatever the decision.

From a former police investigator's perspective

By the time a detention warrant is requested, the police believe the injury is serious and the suspect is a foreign national who could leave; that is the whole of the application. What the judge is looking for is a reason the standard concern does not apply to this person. A duty lawyer can say "he has a job." Retained counsel can show the contract, the lease, the girlfriend's statement, a preserved CCTV request, and a client who has already begun to prepare for the case rather than to avoid it. In fights where the other man was the aggressor, that difference has kept people out of detention and, months later, out of prison.

Tonight is the moment, not tomorrow morning. Call +82-2-522-3959; if the line is busy, use the text consultation form and mark it urgent.

— Hyeonghwan Chon, Managing Partner, MEGA X Law Firm Korea