Korea Industrial Accident Civil Damages Net Additional Recovery Calculator

Map Korean workers’ compensation benefits to the same civil damage, apply the Supreme Court deduction-before-fault order, and estimate additional recovery after prior payment, interest and case costs.

All defaults are fictional planning inputs, not statutory or market averages. Replace them with reviewed case records.

1. Civil damage categories

This tool does not predict an award. Enter KRW amounts supported by a reviewed damage schedule.

KRW

Use a reviewed loss-of-earnings schedule for absence, disability or death

KRW

Reviewed past and future treatment, nursing and attendant-care damages

KRW
KRW

Enter only property damage separately confirmed not to overlap benefits

KRW

No benefit is auto-deducted, but the fault scenario is applied

2. Matched workers’ compensation benefits

Do not copy the whole benefit award. Enter only portions confirmed to match the same damage, period and rights holder.

KRW

Only the portion confirmed to match the same lost-income period and nature

KRW

Only the portion confirmed to be complementary to lost-income damages

KRW

Confirm both the damage category and the identity of the rights holder

KRW

Confirmed amount matching the same treatment or care expense

KRW
KRW

3. Fault, recovery and case costs

Use reviewed fault, settlement and engagement assumptions to estimate recovery after case costs.

%

A user scenario for legal review, not a predicted court finding

%p

Percentage points subtracted from and added to the base, up to 50

KRW

Use only the amount confirmed as allocated to the damages modeled here

%

Not an automatic statutory rate; leave at 0% unless confirmed

months

Simple-interest scenario, up to 120 months

KRW

Actual quoted fixed fees, filing, service, appraisal and record costs

%

Applied to recovery including modeled interest; use the actual engagement terms

Base-scenario additional recovery summary

Current-method gross claim

₩63,000,000

Recovery including modeled interest

₩63,000,000

Net additional recovery after costs

₩51,700,000

Difference from legacy order

₩18,500,000

Worker fault 30% · reference liable share 70% · matched benefits ₩65,000,000

Deduction by damage category

The current method deducts matched benefits first, then applies the liable share. No benefit is auto-deducted from consolation or confirmed non-overlapping property damage.

Matched benefit deduction and additional claim by damage category
Damage categoryDamageMatched benefitAfter benefitCurrent claimLegacy comparison
Lost income₩100,000,000₩50,000,000₩50,000,000₩35,000,000₩20,000,000
Treatment and care₩20,000,000₩15,000,000₩5,000,000₩3,500,000₩0
Funeral₩0₩0₩0₩0₩0
Other non-overlapping property damage₩5,000,000₩0₩5,000,000₩3,500,000₩3,500,000
Consolation damages₩30,000,000₩0₩30,000,000₩21,000,000₩21,000,000
Total₩155,000,000₩65,000,000—₩63,000,000₩44,500,000

Worker-fault sensitivity

Lower-fault, base and higher-fault rows are sensitivity scenarios, not predictions.

Additional recovery by worker-fault scenario
ScenarioWorker faultLiable shareGross claimWith interestNet after costs
Lower-fault20%80%₩72,000,000₩72,000,000₩59,800,000
★ Base30%70%₩63,000,000₩63,000,000₩51,700,000
Higher-fault40%60%₩54,000,000₩54,000,000₩43,600,000

Recovery, costs and break-even

Effective prior recovery
₩0
Remaining recovery principal
₩63,000,000
Modeled delay interest
₩0
Modeled success fee
₩6,300,000
Total case cost
₩11,300,000
Break-even remaining principal
₩5,555,556
Break-even gross claim
₩5,555,556

Required review warnings

  • Benefit deduction requires review of damage category, period, beneficiary and claim ownership.
  • Worker fault and employer liability depend on evidence and adjudication; this calculator does not decide them.

Official precedent boundary

Under Article 80(2) of Korea’s Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act and Supreme Court 2023Da297141 decided June 26, 2025, matched benefits are deducted before applying fault. Supreme Court 2021Da203135 decided March 13, 2025 requires case-specific review of the damage category and the relationship between the benefit holder and damages claimant.

Korea 2026 rule set · official sources last checked 2026-08-30

Related calculators

What this Korea industrial-accident civil damages calculator does

A worker or surviving family member may receive benefits from the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service, commonly called KCOMWEL, and still have a civil claim for uncompensated damage if employer or third-party liability is established.
The difficult part is not simply adding a workers’ compensation award to a civil damage schedule.
Korean law prevents duplicate recovery for the same damage, so the result depends on which benefit matches which damage category and whether the benefit is deducted before or after comparative fault.

This calculator separates lost income, treatment and attendant care, funeral expense, other confirmed non-overlapping property damage, and consolation damages.
It then maps only the portions of temporary-disability, disability, survivor, medical, nursing and funeral benefits that the user has confirmed as complementary to the same civil damage.
The calculation applies the current Korean Supreme Court order: subtract the matched benefit first, then apply the worker-fault scenario to the remainder.

Korea-specific legal planning only

This page uses the Korean rule set current on August 30, 2026 and all amounts are in KRW.
It does not decide industrial-accident eligibility, employer tort liability, causation, disability grade, damages, fault, limitation, success probability or enforceability.
Replace every fictional default with amounts reviewed from the benefit decisions, medical and wage records, damage schedule, settlement documents and actual legal-fee quote.

The 2026 rule: deduct matched benefits before comparative fault

First, identify the same damage

Article 80(2) of Korea’s Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act relieves the insured employer of civil liability only within benefits paid for the same grounds.
Supreme Court 2021Da203135, decided March 13, 2025, explains that the benefit and civil award must be complementary in both the damage category and the ownership of the benefit right and damages claim.
A similar label alone does not establish that relationship.

Second, apply fault to the remainder

Supreme Court 2023Da297141, decided June 26, 2025, held that the matching benefit is deducted from the same-nature damage before comparative fault is applied.
The Court confirmed this order not only where an employer and third party are joint tortfeasors, but also where the insured employer is the only alleged tortfeasor.

Current and legacy calculation orders

Current Supreme Court order

(same-nature damage − matched benefit) × liable share

Legacy comparison only

same-nature damage × liable share − benefit

The legacy figure appears only to explain the effect of the changed order.
It is not presented as an alternative current-law result.
The tool never applies a benefit to consolation damages or other property damage that the user has separately confirmed does not overlap.

How to map civil damage and KCOMWEL benefits

Do not enter the total printed on a benefit decision without checking the period and damage category.
A reviewed schedule should show how much of each benefit is complementary to the particular civil damage and whether the benefit holder and damages claimant are the same rights holder for that item.

Lost-income bucket

Enter only matched portions of temporary-disability, disability or survivor benefits that correspond to the same absence, post-disability earnings loss or death-related lost-income period. Do not deduct two benefits against the same period without reviewing overlap.

Treatment and care bucket

Match medical and nursing benefits only to the same past treatment, future treatment, attendant-care or nursing expense in the civil schedule. Keep uncovered charges, family care and unrelated benefits separate.

Funeral bucket

Enter only the funeral benefit portion confirmed to complement the civil funeral damage. The KCOMWEL amount and the civil damage amount need not be identical.

Other property damage and consolation

Use the other-property field only after confirming that no listed industrial-accident benefit duplicates it. The calculator does not deduct benefits from consolation damages, although it applies the selected fault scenario.

Do not auto-convert a pension

Article 80(2) contains a deemed-lump-sum rule for disability and survivor pensions, but the amount and period that match a civil loss still require case-specific analysis.
This tool does not convert future pension payments to a lump sum or present value.
Enter only the amount that has been reviewed as deductible in the modeled damage bucket.

Worked example from Supreme Court 2023Da297141

The published decision records KRW 67,295,086 of lost income after the temporary-disability period, KRW 54,202,500 of disability benefit, and a 70% employer-liability share, equivalent to 30% worker fault.
The button labeled 2025 Supreme Court example loads those figures without adding costs, interest or other damages.

  1. Deduct KRW 54,202,500 from KRW 67,295,086, leaving KRW 13,092,586.
  2. Multiply the remainder by the 70% liable share and round to the nearest KRW, producing KRW 9,164,810.
  3. The legacy order applies 70% first and then deducts the full benefit, producing zero for comparison.

The Supreme Court appeal itself was limited to KRW 8,200,000 plus delay damages, so the Court reversed and remanded only that portion.
KRW 9,164,810 is a formula check using figures in the opinion, not a final amount awarded by the Supreme Court.

Step-by-step use

  1. Build the damage schedule first. Separate lost income, treatment and care, funeral damage, other non-overlapping property damage and consolation damages in KRW.
  2. Review every benefit decision. Enter only matched portions of the six benefit types after checking category, period and rights holder.
  3. Set fault scenarios. Enter a base worker-fault percentage and a sensitivity spread to compare lower-fault, base and higher-fault results.
  4. Add verified recovery and costs. Use only a prior payment allocated to the modeled damage, a confirmed delay-interest scenario, actual fixed costs and the engagement success-fee rate.
  5. Print and challenge the mapping. Ask Korean counsel to check every damage-benefit link, fault scenario, prior-payment allocation and fee assumption before using the estimate.

Net recovery and break-even interpretation

Net additional recovery

The calculator subtracts effective prior civil recovery from the current-method gross claim, adds simple interest using the user-confirmed annual rate and months, and then subtracts fixed case cost and a modeled success fee.
A negative net means the entered case costs exceed modeled recovery.
It does not mean that no legal claim exists.

Break-even principal

Break-even remaining principal is the principal needed to cover the fixed cost after the modeled interest factor and success-fee share.
Break-even gross claim adds the entered prior same-damage recovery.
Collection risk, enforcement cost, tax, VAT on fees and any recoverable litigation cost awarded against the other side are outside the formula.

Delay interest is not selected automatically

A real Korean claim may use different rates over different periods depending on when damage accrued, service of the complaint, the judgment and governing provisions.
This calculator accepts one confirmed annual rate and one month count as a simple planning scenario.
Leave both at zero if the applicable rate and period have not been reviewed.

Documents to collect before Korean legal advice

  • KCOMWEL decisions and payment records for medical, temporary-disability, disability, survivor, nursing and funeral benefits.
  • Accident report, work instructions, safety training, protective-equipment and risk-assessment records, plus witness statements.
  • Diagnosis, medical record, disability opinion, treatment receipts and future-treatment or attendant-care evidence.
  • Payroll, tax withholding, absence period and a reviewed lost-earnings schedule with disability and present-value assumptions.
  • Settlement, judgment and payment records from the employer, insurer or third party, including allocation by damage category.
  • Actual Korean counsel quote for retainer, success fee, VAT, filing, service, appraisal and record costs.

Practical scenarios and limitations

After benefit payment

Reconcile the KCOMWEL payment record with the damage schedule to locate uncompensated damage by category.

When reviewing settlement

Enter only the confirmed same-damage allocation of a proposed or paid settlement and compare the remaining net recovery.

Before budgeting litigation

Apply a fault spread and actual engagement quote to see where modeled recovery covers the case-cost assumption.

  • The formula does not allocate internal fault among an employer and third party or calculate KCOMWEL subrogation and recourse.
  • Do not place an undifferentiated settlement total in the prior-recovery field when damage allocation is unclear.
  • Civil Act Article 766 states general three-year and ten-year tort limitation periods, but accrual, knowledge, interruption and exceptions require case-specific review.
  • A positive output is not an employer-liability finding, settlement floor, expected judgment or recommendation to litigate.

Frequently asked questions

Should I enter the entire workers’ compensation award?

No. Enter only portions confirmed to match the same damage category and period, with complementary ownership of the benefit right and civil damages claim. Leave an unreviewed benefit at zero and flag it for counsel.

Is a disability benefit deducted from consolation damages?

This calculator does not deduct an industrial-accident benefit from consolation damages. The benefit ordinarily compensates a property-loss category, while consolation is non-pecuniary, but the exact pleading and allocation still need Korean legal review.

How is the worker-fault rate chosen?

Evidence about the accident, instructions, safety measures, protective equipment and conduct may affect the court finding. The tool only compares a rate and spread supplied by the user and never recommends a fault percentage.

What changed between the 2022 and 2025 Supreme Court decisions?

The 2021Da241618 en banc decision addressed third-party claims and KCOMWEL subrogation under the deduction-first approach. The 2023Da297141 decision expressly applied the same order where the insured employer alone was the alleged tortfeasor.

Does a positive result mean litigation is worthwhile?

No. Liability, evidence, limitation, recognized damages, collectability, enforcement cost, tax and duration are not decided. The output is a monetary scenario to test with Korean counsel.

Can surviving family members use the calculator?

Yes, but survivor-benefit ownership, inherited lost-income claims, each family member’s own consolation claim and succession shares must be separated. Do not combine every family amount into one claimant automatically.

Official sources and update boundary

  • Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act Articles 80 and 87, law ID 001760, current MST 283459, effective July 1, 2026.
  • Korean Civil Act Articles 393, 396, 750, 760, 763 and 766, law ID 001706, current MST 284415, effective March 17, 2026.
  • Supreme Court 2023Da297141, decided June 26, 2025, National Law Information precedent ID 607205.
  • Supreme Court 2021Da241618 en banc, decided March 24, 2022, precedent ID 222621.
  • Supreme Court 2021Da203135, decided March 13, 2025, precedent ID 609541.

The official texts were rechecked through the National Law Information OPEN API on August 30, 2026.
The Korean and English formula, tests and content must be reviewed together if Articles 80 or 87, the deduction order, same-damage doctrine or rights-holder analysis changes.

Turn the output into review questions

Replace the fictional inputs, print the damage-benefit mapping and ask Korean industrial-accident counsel to verify every period, category, rights holder, fault scenario and cost term.
A defensible next step begins with a traceable mapping, not one large headline number.