변호사의 직업적 개인정보에 대한 이용과 보호의 법리 : 로마켓 변호사평가정보 사건(2008다42430)에 대한 평석을 겸하여

초록

Since the Constitutional Court of Korea acknowledged the right of informational privacy as a new distinct constitutional right in 2005, the controversy over the nature and contents of the right has still progressed. The author has argued that there are substantial differences in its protection law between the private secrets and the personal data. As the nature and contents of the new right are uncertain, some misunderstanding of the new right seems to be rampant in Korean society. The misunderstanding is that the private secrets and the personal data should be protected on the same level. Indeed, the Data Protection Act of 2011 is based on the similar misconception. The misconception has also come to the front in a recent civil case, the case of lawyer’s occupational information services, which shall be examined by this paper. The main issue of the case is as follows: where a legal information company collects open personal data and case record about practicing lawyers, analyse and process them, produce other distinct occupational information such as the ratio of winning or losing a case, the index of professionalism, and the index of personal connections between lawyers, judges, and prosecutors, and then provide such occupational information for customers on the internet, what kind of personality rights of the lawyers are violated? On the case, the practicing lawyers claimed that all the information services should be shut down and damages should be paid because their rights of informational privacy are violated by the services. The district and appellate courts admitted the claims on the ratio of winning or losing a case and the index of professionalism, but dismissed the claims on the index of personal connections and damages. The Supreme Court, however, dismissed the claims on the ratio of winning or losing a case and the index of professionalism, but admitted the claim on the index of personal connections. The dissenting opinion dismissed the index of personal connections as well. This paper critically examines the analysing frameworks and decisions by the lower and highest courts.

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