What's wrong with this lawyer?!-Chapter 998 - 323: Legal Director: I Anticipated Tang Fangjing’s Anticipation!

March 18th, rainy day, auspicious: indefinite, injection execution, taboo: petitions, mediation.

Inside Tengda Law Firm, chaos reigned as Director Tang was in a bad mood today, managing to make twenty young lawyers cry within an hour.

Not literally cry, but standing there with gloomy faces, a certain bewilderment in their eyes, as if questioning how they could still be lawyers with their skills, or even work at Tengda.

As for why Director Tang was in a bad mood, it was mainly because of the terrible weather today - lousy weather affects one’s mood, clearly a logical conclusion.

Just after returning to the office, Tang’s cell phone rang, and to his surprise, it was Judge Zhou calling.

Without delay, he answered: "Hello, Judge Zhou, what can I do for you?"

At work, you must address each other by official titles, regardless of any personal relations; work is work.

On the other end of the line, Judge Zhou spoke in a grave tone: "Director Tang, remember you filed a lawsuit for damages based on monopoly? Now, the other party has expressed a strong desire to mediate."

"I am the presiding judge on this case, so I’m informing you now, tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, in the third-floor conference room, I will oversee the mediation. The plaintiff must also be present."

Judge Zhou truly sounded like he was holding back tears, his heart heavy with sorrow.

Upon hearing this, Tang burst into laughter: "So they want to mediate, eh? No problem on my end, and the plaintiff has to be there too? That can be arranged."

Now it was Judge Zhou’s turn to be puzzled: "They want to mediate and you’re happy? Don’t you have any other thoughts about this case?"

Tang laughed even louder: "What a thing to ask! If the defendants want to mediate, wouldn’t you be thrilled, Judge Zhou? What more could I, as a lawyer, ask for? As long as the case is well handled, that’s all that matters."

Judge Zhou... grew even angrier!

So, without another word, he hung up the phone.

Tang, listening to the busy signal, just shook his head. Before filing the lawsuit, he had indeed considered the possibility of mediation, as it was a case for compensation – a monetary claim.

With such lawsuits, all you need is for the other party to produce the money you demand, and even if you disagree with mediating, you have no choice!

It’s like the real-life high-profile engagement gift dispute.

Putting aside all other factors such as the time of returning the bride price in the case, if you only focus on the bride price claim, you’ll realize that if the other party meets your demands and pays, your unwillingness to mediate and insistence on a lawsuit would be outright dismissed.

Why? Because your demands have been met, and the court has no ground to issue a ruling, only to reject the case.

Tang had no control over such a situation; as influential as he may be, he was just a lawyer after all. You can’t keep insisting on a lawsuit for five hundred if they’ve paid you five hundred; that’s pointless.

Helpless against his reputation, nowadays many companies choose to mediate any lawsuit he’s involved in.

However, even if the case goes to mediation, that’s simply one way to go about it. Like when he handled the case involving the delivery worker, all big law firms started to explore this untouched market.

Plus, this wasn’t an urgent task; so he was in no hurry.

But as for Judge Zhou... one shouldn’t complain everywhere about a hard life. Ruining someone else’s mood – that wouldn’t be right, would it?

As time passed into afternoon, the manager of the New Large Car Sales Company, Manager Liu, was on a phone call.

"Manager Zhang, rest assured the matter is basically settled. I just spoke with the court, and we’ll sign the mediation agreement tomorrow; there shouldn’t be any issues."

On the other end of the line, Manager Zhang said with a stern face: "There’s still one issue – the mediation requires confidentiality, do you understand what I mean?"

Huh? Manager Liu was taken aback: "This... confidential?

"Exactly, confidential. Your mediation is simply giving the other party the money they want, right?" asked Manager Zhang.

"Of course, once they have the money, they have no grounds for a lawsuit," replied Manager Liu quickly.

Manager Zhang sighed: "But today, our legal department said that if this mediation agreement is leaked, a whole bunch of people would file for compensation."

Being a legal director in such a major company, one’s professional level is beyond doubt. Perhaps they’ve been a judge, or they might be a partner from a top law firm who changed careers.

The legal director had scrutinized the copy of the complaint countless times, and the worrying part was not the amount of compensation, but "demanding the other party cover our reasonable legal costs!"

The obstacles to litigating and defending one’s rights today are, firstly, costs and secondly, execution issues.

If you don’t hire a lawyer, you lack the time and expertise, but hiring one means facing legal fees upfront.

Not to mention lawyers charge for everything, including expenses for evidence collection, appraisal, and so forth, which you have to pay beforehand.

So you are faced with a situation where, even if you win the lawsuit, when you deduct these defense costs, there’s not much compensation left, and it could even turn into a loss.

But with this clause, as long as you win the lawsuit, all these expenses will be paid by the other party, completely changing the circumstances.

Then, certainly, people will take on such cases - have no doubts, they will. Loss-making businesses are a no-go, but when profit beckons, people will fight tooth and nail for it; for money, they’d lick blood off a knife’s edge!

And there will still be those wondering, if it’s a case closed by mediation, how can you be so sure the lawsuit would have been won?