Having Common Name Dooms Woman's Lawsuit|都是菜巿仔名的錯!一個淑芬140件提告紀錄

The Judicial Reform Foundation recently went to the Control Yuan to present a case involving a woman named "Shu-fen." Three years ago, she filed a lawsuit against a friend. When prosecutors checked their system, they discovered 140 records where the plaintiff had the same first and last names as this woman, as this name is very common in Taiwan. They concluded this "Shu-fen" had a habit of filing multiple lawsuits and declined to prosecute. The foundation said the Control Yuan should investigate the deficiencies of the prosecutorial system.


In 2015, this woman named "Shu-fen" filed a lawsuit against a friend for offenses against freedom. She received a response from the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office informing her that it had declined to prosecute, with one of the reasons listed as "Shu-fen" had a habit of filing frivolous lawsuits, including lawsuits for fraud and invasion. All in all, there were 140 cases with "Shu-fen" listed as the plaintiff. However, this Shu-fen says prosecutors confused her with other people with the same first and last names, failed to investigate further, and then attributed all of these cases to her.

Yes, I have a very common name, but that doesn't mean judicial authorities can attribute all these cases to me without further investigation.

Shu-fen and Jia-hao were the most common names in Taiwan in 2016. Other common names included Zhi-ming, Shu-hui, Jun-jie and Mei-ling. The Judicial Reform Foundation says there are deficiencies with the system prosecutors use to make inquiries, as it doesn't check national identification card numbers to more accurately identify persons. Shu-fen tried to explain the situation to both the Ministry of Justice and the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, but in both cases just received a bureaucratic response. The foundation criticized judicial authorities for their unwillingness to make an effort in even the most basic type of shortcoming, saying this will hinder judicial reform.

This issue can be resolved if the Ministry of Justice is willing to just add one data field and fill in one more piece of information. However, our judicial branch and our judicial authorities are turning a blind eye.

Afterwards, we conducted an investigation and rectified this incorrect data field. We also uploaded the information to the digital system, so this type of issue won't arise in the future with lawsuits in the same category.

The New Taipei District Prosecutors Office says it will make inquiries by type of lawsuit in the future to make up for the deficiencies in the system. Last year, a similar mishap occurred with the Keelung District Prosecutors Office. Prosecutors failed to thoroughly investigate a defendant's personal information, and ended up sending the disciplinary notice to a person with the same first and last names. The Judicial Reform Foundation has asked the Control Yuan to intervene and launch an investigation.