Medical dispute glossary
The medical dispute glossary defines the legal terms that decide how a case moves through mediation in Korea.
Definitions follow the wording of the Medical Dispute Mediation Act and related laws in force on 22 October 2026.
- Medical accident
- Harm to a person’s life, body or property caused by diagnosis, examination, treatment, prescribing or dispensing of medicines and similar acts that a health care professional performs on a patient (Medical Dispute Mediation Act, Art. 2).
- Mediation
- A procedure at the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency in which a panel proposes a decision that each side may accept or refuse within 15 days.
- Arbitration
- A procedure in which both sides agree in writing to follow the panel’s final decision; the award has the effect of a final judgment.
- Commencement
- The point at which mediation actually starts, usually when the respondent agrees to take part. Deadlines for appraisal and decision run from this date.
- Automatic commencement
- The start of mediation without the respondent’s consent when an accident caused death, a coma of a month or more, or a severe disability defined by decree (Art. 27(9)).
- Dismissal
- Ending an application without examining its merits, for example when the respondent does not agree to take part within 14 days.
- Appraisal
- The examination of a medical accident by the agency’s appraisal panel, reported in writing within 60 days of commencement.
- Court settlement effect
- The legal force a concluded mediation has: the agreement binds both sides as a settlement made before a court would.
- Advance payment (daebul)
- Payment by the agency of damages that the liable side has not paid after a decided case, which the agency then recovers (Art. 47).
- Interruption of limitation
- The effect of a mediation application on the limitation period; it lapses if the application is withdrawn or dismissed and no lawsuit follows within a month.
- Foreign-patient facilitator
- A business registered to attract foreign patients. It must carry guarantee insurance of at least ₩100 million. Korea Patient Rights Guide is not a facilitator.
- Damage relief
- The Korea Consumer Agency’s procedure for consumer complaints, including medical services, under the Framework Act on Consumers.
- Site calculation
- A rate or share Korea Patient Rights Guide derives from published counts, such as an agreement rate. The published counts themselves are never edited.
How are the medical dispute terms defined?
From the relevant law, rewritten in plain language without changing the meaning.