First Preliminary Hearing in Coupang U.S. Class Action Held on September 1... Court to Conduct In-Person Hearing

Coupang's request for 'written proceedings' denied
Court to directly organize issues and future schedule

The first preliminary hearing in the class action filed in the U.S. over the Coupang personal information leak incident will be held on the 1st of next month (local time). The court decided not to accept Coupang's request to proceed with written procedures and to conduct an in-person hearing directly.

On the 3rd, according to the legal community, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York decided to hold the first preliminary hearing of the class action related to the Coupang personal information leak in person at 1 p.m. (local time) on September 1.

Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who is handling the case, did not accept Coupang's request to skip the preliminary conference and set a schedule for submitting briefs for a motion to dismiss, and ordered an in-person conference at which both sides attend.

A preliminary hearing in a U.S. federal court is a procedure in which, ahead of full-scale written exchanges, the judge directly summons the parties to organize the issues and coordinate the future hearing schedule. Similar in nature to a Korean civil litigation's trial preparation date, it serves to organize the issues to be contested going forward and to determine the schedule and scope for submitting briefs.

The legal community views that, since this case is an international class action involving numerous victims and Coupang has foreshadowed dismissal logic including procedural defenses and the issue of applying Korean law, the court intends to first organize the main issues through an in-person hearing.

With the setting of this date, Coupang's submission of a motion to dismiss is also expected to take place after the preliminary hearing. The future litigation schedule, including the answer submission deadline and page limits on which the two sides have not agreed, is also expected to be organized by the court that day.

The plaintiffs' side has begun preparing a response strategy ahead of the preliminary hearing. An official of SJKP, which represents the plaintiffs, said, "We understand it to mean that the court will not handle the case by briefs alone but will directly examine the issues," adding, "We plan to use the conference to grasp the issues the court considers important, reinforce the logic of our answer, and prepare for adding new lead plaintiffs."

Kim Han-young (kor_eng@edaily.co.kr)

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Edaily - First Preliminary Hearing in Coupang U.S. Class Action Held on September 1... Court to Conduct In-Person Hearing (Go to Link)
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Aju Economy - [Law Firm Lounge] First Preliminary Hearing to Be Held in Coupang U.S. Class Action... Daeryun SJKP "Will Mount a Full-Scale Response" (Go to Link)