Chapter 81: Being clever but being misled by cleverness
Judge Christine's office is decorated in a very elegant style.
But for Lu Ming, the memories here are not very good. The first time he was imprisoned by a judge happened here.
Lu Ming and Smith sat in the same position as last time. Opposite the desk, sat the elegant Christine in a black judge's robe.
"Yesterday, I had afternoon tea with several justices of the High Court and talked about this case all afternoon."
After hearing this opening statement, Smith suddenly felt something was wrong. Just as he was about to speak, Christine waved her hand to stop him.
“We didn’t discuss any results, but they were all very interested in the three test criteria proposed by Lawyer Lu. Some people also mentioned that they hope to introduce these three test criteria in similar cases. But returning to this case, given that Lawyer Lu proposed
The motion is immature. I still prefer to rule in favor of the plaintiff. However, as the main body, Baoyin Bank should not bear the responsibility for all the losses of the plaintiff. The scammer who has absconded is the subject of liability. I prefer Baoyin Bank to bear joint and several liability.
The plaintiff needs to be compensated for 10% of his losses, and in addition, bear the litigation costs."
Lu Ming was very well-behaved, sitting upright, even a little too well-behaved. He didn't say a word, he just listened, as if he had changed his ways after being imprisoned.
But after a quick calculation in my mind, Nadu Pictures was actually worth 1.8 million yuan. Bi Hanting's loss was between 8.9 million yuan, and I would bear 10% of the responsibility, which means that the maximum compensation would be 100,000 yuan.
, the legal fees are not much.
In addition, Baoyin Bank's assets will be released soon, and it will not be completely exhausted. As long as depositors can be appeased, there is still hope.
Although the lawsuit was apparently lost, the actual result could be said to be a win, and he had lived up to the trust of the Wei family.
As for his agency agreement, it doesn't matter if he can only get 30% of Baoyin Bank's shares if he wins the lawsuit.
Christine stopped Smith who was about to speak again. She seemed very satisfied with Lu Ming's attitude and said: "Of course, even if the defendant wins the case, it is not unreasonable, so I will consider it carefully when I go back."
By referring to some cases, you can prepare well before the verdict is announced in court tomorrow. I hope you can have something new to convince me before I make a ruling."
Seeing that Christine had finally finished speaking, Smith immediately said: "Your Honor, I ask the court to postpone the case again, because the Wei family and his son may have conspired with the fraudster to defraud my client, and I need time to find evidence!
"
Kristine frowned slightly: "Where is the evidence?"
Smith hesitated, "Just now, with Lawyer Lu present, the settlement agreement proposed by the defendant was extremely generous and unbelievable. Therefore, I have reason to suspect that the other party is eager to..."
Lu Ming coughed nearby and raised his hand cautiously: "Your honor, this is just my client trying to make up for his friends for decades of friendship..."
Christine waved her hand and glared at Lu Ming. This guy had an excuse. He had been pretending to be wronged since he entered the office.
"Then I hope you can find new evidence before tomorrow! And Lawyer Smith, according to the principle of child protection, you should not mention the unreached settlement agreement to me!" At this point, Christine couldn't help but look at it.
He glanced at Lu Ming.
After thinking about it again, Christine sighed softly, "Are you applying for an extension again? Now think about it, this case has been delayed for too long. It is very unfair to Baoyin Bank and the depositors. Lawyer Smith, I hope you will
If you can convince me when the trial begins, I have begun to doubt the plaintiff’s true intentions.”
Smith was stunned and could hear that the balance in Judge Christine's mind was tilting towards the defendant.
Originally, Judge Christine was prepared to reject the plaintiff's request for compensation and was only prepared to allow the defendant to pay 10% of the joint and several liability.
More than 100,000 yuan, to be honest, is enough to cover the expenses incurred by the client for this case in the past few months, including the full support of the accounting firm and his own law firm, etc.
That is to say, the parties concerned spent several months and wasted time and energy, but in the end got nothing.
Although the law firm made money, the client actually lost, and the result was not very glorious by any means.
Moreover, if you listen, Judge Christine may break the rules and directly quote the young lawyer's motion to rule in favor of the defendant tomorrow?
"Your Honor..." Smith wanted to say more.
"Okay, you go out. I still want to think about this case carefully. I also hope that you will have new discoveries tomorrow to really convince me!" Christine waved her hand.
Smith and Lu Ming stood up, and Lu Ming walked behind. When they reached the door, Lu Ming turned back and stretched out his thumb, and whispered: "My lord is wise and mighty!"
Christine immediately stared.
Lu Ming had already slipped out and quickly closed the door.
Christine's pretty and serious face showed a bit of helplessness, with a faint smile on her lips. She shook her head and picked up the files on the desk to read.
…
Sitting in Wei Baozeng's car at the steps of the court, Lu Ming shook his head and sighed, "It's really hard to be a licking dog!"
Wei Baozeng was stunned and didn't understand what Lu Ming meant.
Looking at Wei Baozeng, Lu Ming said: "This is good news. The worst result may be that we lose the lawsuit, but we only need to pay Bi Dong a hundred thousand yuan. It is also possible that we will win the lawsuit."
"Really?!" Wei Baozeng opened his eyes wide when he stood up.
Lu Ming nodded, "However, I still have to go back and make preparations. Then Smith will definitely not sit still and wait for death, for fear of something happening!"
Wei Baozeng nodded: "Okay, let's celebrate tomorrow!" He glanced at Lu Ming and said, "Qianxing, don't worry, even if we are sentenced to lose tomorrow, but the compensation amount is only about 100,000 yuan, then we still win, between us
The agency agreement will also take effect according to winning the lawsuit."
Lu Ming waved his hand: "No, we still have to strictly implement the agreement. I will not be greedy for God's merit."
Wei Baozeng showed appreciation in his eyes and said no more, but it seemed that he already had some ideas in mind.
…
The next morning, Judge Christine had just sat on the bench and the legal officer announced the opening of the court.
Smith immediately stood up and said, "Your Honor, I request that the case be adjourned because we have new witnesses who prove that Wei Baozeng and his son colluded with the fraudster John Rooney and were accomplices in defrauding our client! Therefore, I hope that the case will be adjourned.
Let’s wait until the criminal proceedings are over before hearing the civil claim part of this case!”
Lu Ming stood up and said, "Your Honor, the Prosecutor's Office has not yet made a decision on whether to file a criminal case against my client!"
I received a call from Cheng Lingyu last night. There was an informant reporting the Wei family for conspiring to commit fraud.
All I can say is that a lawyer’s connections are extremely important.
Looking at Smith, Lu Ming shook his head. He admired him at first, but it turned out that he was also a guy who would do anything to win.
The witness is more or less false. Now Smith wants to drag out the lawsuit. In this way, his side will suffer heavy losses. Therefore, in order to no longer drag out the lawsuit, he believes that his side will also propose the original settlement agreement to end the lawsuit.
litigation.
On the judge's bench, Christine nodded and looked at Smith with extremely dissatisfied eyes, "If this is the case, you can wait until the criminal lawsuit is filed and then file a civil compensation lawsuit based on the outcome of the lawsuit!"
He looked at the plaintiff's dock and the defendant's dock, then at the auditorium, and at the crowd of reporters behind the auditorium.
Christine said slowly: "It has been 153 days since the filing of the complaint. It can be said that it has been a long time. This court agrees with the plaintiff. The plaintiff and the defendant were already professional when the defendant inquired the bank accounts for the plaintiff.
The two parties formed a legal relationship for professional consultation. However, the defendant did not expect that this consultation would cause huge economic losses to the plaintiff. The relevant persons directly responsible have either pleaded guilty or absconded. The defendant had no intention of directly deceiving the plaintiff.
.”
"If the defendant is declared liable, it will put many professionals in a dangerous situation, such as accountants, who calculate accounts based on the information they have. If the original information itself is false, the results they calculated without knowing it will be
It will also be wrong and will cause trouble and loss to the parties. Although they are exempt from criminal liability, similar to this case, if the defendant in this case needs to bear responsibility, these professionals will also be held financially accountable when they encounter similar cases in the future.
.”
"At the same time, the defendant had good intentions and helped his friends, and there was no behavioral negligence..."
As Lu Ming listened to Judge Christine's detailed explanation of the basis for her verdict before pronouncing the verdict, Lu Ming gradually felt more at ease. It seemed that the defendant would be directly ruled in favor of the case.
To a certain extent, a step has been taken to recognize that the neighbor principle requires three test criteria.
My second plan is no longer necessary.
As for her repeated emphasis that the defendant "did not commit any behavioral negligence," she was referring to situations where he did not do bad things with good intentions, such as situations where non-professionals required first aid, causing the injured person's injuries to worsen.
Another example is that in this case, if the Wei family took the initiative to help and helped Bi Hanting check the client's accounts, the result may be different.
That's it for case law. When there is no jury, it mainly depends on the will of the judge. For the same case, different judges, the results may be very different, because there are not many written laws to refer to. You can only refer to the basic legal principles.
Different judges will have different understandings of previous precedents.
Of course, if the judge's reasoning is really far-fetched and cannot convince the other party's lawyer, then the losing party will inevitably appeal, and may even incur serious complaints.
“Based on the above, I declare that in this case, the defendant did not commit any negligence and all the plaintiff’s claims are dismissed!”
"Ding!" Judge Christine knocked the gavel hard, and the legal officer immediately stood up and said in a long tone: "Exit the court!"
Everyone stood up together and watched Judge Christine walk down from the judge's bench and return to the inner room through the side door.
Wei Baozeng stood up suddenly and was about to give Lu Ming a big hug, but Lu Ming had already walked away to talk to the affairs officer.
Wei Baozeng was stunned. He didn't know that Lu Ming was afraid of being hugged in this situation. Everyone was very excited at this time. His small body couldn't help it.
Smith looked frustrated.
Bi Hanting even turned around and walked out of the court. Wei Baozeng hesitated for a moment, then quickly squeezed through the crowd and chased after him.
