Lay judges to feature in civil servant corruption trialEXPLOITATION: The civil servant allegedly used access to the household registration system to pass on information allowing developers to forge property deed transfersBy Wang Ting-chuan and Jason Pan / Staff reportersLay judges are to take part in a corruption trial involving a civil servant in New Taipei City who allegedly colluded with businesses suspected of operating inheritance scams to profiteer from property development, the Ministry of Justice said on Friday. It is the first time that lay judges would adjudicate a corruption case involving a civil servant since the promulgation of the Citizen Judges Act (國民法官法) in August 2020 and its implementation in 2023, the ministry said. Wang allegedly accessed the information using the local government’s household registration database, checking the inheritance information for registered property owners and passing the information to the real-estate firms, the indictment said. The real-estate companies would then allegedly use the information to fraudulently claim ownership of the properties through forged wills and property deed transfers, it said. The other defendants would be tried in regular courts, it said, adding that their cases were not suitable for lay judges.

Source: Taipei Times January 24, 2026 17:13 UTC