219: Finally caught the little braid!

“Yes, that’s Lawyer Zhou Yun. For some reason, the other party went to Hexi Province and took on that case. Please review the materials first.”

The branch general manager, Ren Jingcheng, was forty-eight years old, in the prime of his life.

The current takeout rider insurance business was very popular, and their company had put a lot of effort into securing this market segment.

One could imagine that as long as a rider worked, they were forced to pay three yuan in insurance premiums every day. Note, this was daily.

Ren Jingcheng frowned and began to read the copy of the complaint. The other party’s reasoning was simple: they believed heatstroke was not an illness, but an accidental injury!

“How could heatstroke not be an illness? Anyone can find out by asking at a hospital. What does this Zhou Yun mean? Does he think we’ll compromise just because he’s an internet celebrity?”

To be honest, this was the first question Ren Jingcheng thought of: was the other party relying on his internet celebrity status, hoping to force them to compromise with a video later?

After all, no matter how you looked at it, as long as someone died, it seemed the insurance should pay. If it didn’t, it would be criticized.

The staff member hesitated and said, “Mr. Ren, what do you think we should do? Should we discuss it with the other party?”

Ren Jingcheng thought carefully for a long time before saying, “Who is the claims adjuster for this case? Have him contact the family of the deceased and tell them the company can offer some compensation out of humanitarianism.”

Humanitarian compensation was often used by insurance companies in personal injury traffic accident cases.

Although the other party was fully at fault, for the sake of corporate image or to reduce negative social impact, they would offer some compensation to the other party, and both sides would settle.

This was actually easy to understand. For example, in a certain traffic accident, if it was already a single-parent family, the father had passed away, and then the mother was also killed, leaving only one child.

In such a case, even though the mother was fully at fault, and logically the insurance company had no need to compensate, out of humanitarianism, they would still pay some.

It was still the same saying: law was law, but law was merely law. It was just a tool for the ruling class to maintain their rule.

Here, Ren Jingcheng, after consideration, also planned to mediate. It wasn’t that he was afraid the case would be lost, but he felt that if Zhou Yun released a video later, public opinion might be unfavorable to the company.

We have some old sayings, like “the person is dead,” or “they’ve already come,” and so on. If someone died on the other side, then give something, big or small.

Of course, even this small amount of money here was due to Zhou Yun. Otherwise, if public opinion didn’t escalate significantly, the insurance company wouldn’t pay.

The staff member nodded: “Mr. Ren, what about the amount?”

Ren Jingcheng thought for a moment and said, “Give five… Oh no, thirty thousand. If they agree, give thirty thousand. If they don’t agree, let them sue us as they please.”

“If they don’t agree, then even if public opinion escalates later, we’ll be fine. We don’t need to compensate them in the first place, and we’re still willing to give thirty thousand. This is already very generous.”

The staff member walked out of the office and immediately informed the relevant parties.

On the other side, Claims Adjuster Xiang Yufeng quickly received a call from his superior.

“Thirty thousand? Why are we suddenly giving thirty thousand? Don’t we usually not compensate for heatstroke?”

The leader’s voice came from the phone: “That’s right, we don’t compensate, but you don’t know, the lawyer the other party hired is that very famous Zhou Yun online. So, considering public opinion, the company decided to give some money.”

To put it bluntly, what everyone was more afraid of with Zhou Yun now was not his legal expertise, but his power to expose things to public opinion.

It was quite ironic to say, Handsome Zhou always considered himself a professional lawyer, but in many people’s eyes, public opinion was his biggest weapon…

Xiang Yufeng was stunned: “Zhou Yun? The lawyer who was stabbed online before, right? I remember that person was particularly fond of handling criminal cases, wasn’t he?”

At this point, Xiang Yufeng seemed to remember something and said, “Oh right, Manager Ma, I received a call before. The other party claimed to be the lawyer hired by Duan Liwei’s family. I guess that must be Zhou Yun.”

One could hear the manager’s voice on the phone change significantly: “You didn’t say anything out of line at the time, did you? Like, ‘sue us however you like’ or something similar?”

Xiang Yufeng thought for a moment and said, “I don’t think I said that. I just normally told them that the company couldn’t compensate and that if they really wanted compensation, they could sue.”

“Then the other party hung up, and there was no conflict.”

The manager’s voice sounded: “That’s good, that’s good…”

The call quickly ended, and Xiang Yufeng immediately prepared to contact Sun Yiling. He personally felt that the other party should agree.

After all, if they sued, they would spend a lot of money and might not get a single cent in the end. This was also why many insurance claims cases ended in settlement.

At this moment, Sun Yiling was on her way to pick up her child. Her child was in elementary school, and because of Duan Liwei’s passing, he had been greatly affected and had rested at home for a period of time.

Now that Lawyer Zhou was finally helping, Sun Yiling planned to take her child out for a nice meal to relax.

Just then, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw it was the claims adjuster.

Sun Yiling was a little surprised that the other party would call her proactively. She knew that before, she had always been the one to contact them, and they barely spoke a few words. After learning it was heatstroke, they directly told her they couldn’t compensate.

However, she still answered. Soon a voice said: “Hello, Ms. Sun, I am Xiang Yufeng, the claims adjuster from Guotai Insurance. We’ve spoken before.”

“You hired Lawyer Zhou Yun to sue, right? We’ve also received the complaint. Now the company’s intention is, should we mediate?”

“It’s not about how this lawsuit will turn out. I can send you previous cases; heatstroke is in the exemption clause. The company won’t lose this case.”

“It’s just that out of humanitarianism, we can give a partial cash compensation. What do you think?”

Sun Yiling was stunned: “Ah? Give cash compensation?”

This Lawyer Zhou’s influence was too great, wasn’t it? They had said they wouldn’t pay a single cent before, and now they were proactively calling to offer compensation?

“Yes, we can give you ten thousand in compensation. If that’s not enough, we can discuss it further. I can try to get more for you from my superiors,” Xiang Yufeng continued.

This was an old trick. Anyway, these days, as long as it was mediation, it was basically impossible to show your bottom line right away.

Then, after some back and forth, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, the other party’s psychological expectation would gradually be met, and they might even thank him when they signed the mediation agreement.

It was just basic sales skills, nothing extraordinary.

Ten thousand… To be honest, Sun Yiling felt this was a good amount of money, but after thinking it over carefully, she said, “I can’t decide this right now. You should contact Lawyer Zhou.”

“If Lawyer Zhou says yes, then it’s yes. If he says no, then it’s no.”

Sun Yiling was able to send Zhou Yun a private message because she had also watched his videos.

Then she knew that if you hired Lawyer Zhou for a case, you had to trust him completely.

Look at those people in the videos; it was precisely because they completely trusted Lawyer Zhou that the benefits they received later were simply unimaginable!

So, her current thinking was, it couldn’t get any worse anyway.

Xiang Yufeng on the other end was a bit bewildered. No, he had already prepared for the other party to start haggling with him, waiting for them to counter-offer.

But he didn’t expect them to not take the bait at all; instead, they told him to talk to Lawyer Zhou!

“No, Ms. Sun, are you sure? Lawyer Zhou will definitely want to sue. If the lawsuit is lost then, you won’t get a single cent!”

“There’s no need to let a lawyer decide this, is there?” Xiang Yufeng quickly said.

However, no matter what he said, Sun Yiling repeated: “Talk to Lawyer Zhou. Even if Lawyer Zhou sues and I don’t get a single cent, I’ll accept it.”

“I definitely won’t blame Lawyer Zhou then, so don’t talk to me about it.”

After several back and forths, Xiang Yufeng also got a bit angry: “You’re simply unreasonable. This is your family’s matter, and the money you get will be yours. Yet you only trust the lawyer. That lawyer will earn his lawyer fees and just walk away. I really don’t know what to say to you… Hello?”

But Sun Yiling on the other end had directly hung up the phone.

Xiang Yufeng was helpless and could only report the situation to his superior.

“They insist we talk to the lawyer? Then forget it. You recorded your call just now, right? If it’s recorded, that’s fine. Even if Zhou Yun releases a video then, we won’t be afraid.”

“There’s no need to call Zhou Yun. That person likes to provoke others with words, then record it and release a video. It might even cause public outcry, so let’s just leave it at that.”

After hanging up, Xiang Yufeng also curled his lips. He didn’t know what kind of magic Zhou Yun had… Should he go watch that person’s videos?

He had only heard that there was such a person before, and that he had been stabbed, but he hadn’t watched any videos.

This was all very normal. Many people had watched Zhou Yun’s videos, but even more people hadn’t. It was just that Manager Ma’s stabbing incident was so sensational that most people had heard his name.

When he got off work, Xiang Yufeng immediately opened a video and started watching. Once he started, he was completely engrossed…

…………

Time slowly passed, and Zhou Yun finally received a call from Capital Hongquan Company.

“Lawyer Zhou, our company’s leadership has approved it. I’ll send you the mediation agreement, and once you sign it, I’ll send you the electronic contract, how does that sound?”

There was no mention of the Changhua District Arbitration Committee, nor did they need to get involved. Once the two parties resolved the issue, they would just notify them to withdraw the application.

They believed the Arbitration Committee would also approve this resolution method…

Zhou Yun quickly said, “Okay, send it over. I’ll take a look at the mediation agreement first.”

Soon, Ruan Jiaying from the Emperor Capital sent the agreement over, and Zhou Yun sat down to read it.

Perhaps the other party knew he could spot it, but anyway, this agreement was relatively normal and basically didn’t contain any hidden traps.

It wasn’t that he was being overly cautious, but rather that in this day and age, one had to be careful when dealing with these big companies.

If it were an ordinary consumer, that would be one thing; they would have to tick a box to agree when logging into the APP.

But since he was mediating now, he had to read it carefully, especially regarding the follow-up; there absolutely could be no restrictions.

After carefully reading it and modifying two small details, he sent it back to the other party. After this back and forth, the electronic mediation agreement was signed through the APP.

After the mediation agreement was signed and confirmed, Ruan Jiaying quickly sent over the electronic contract.

If it were anyone else, they would have to wait at this point for the company to stamp it, then file and confirm it, and then confirm with the Arbitration Committee before the contract would be sent over.

But Zhou Yun was different. Hongquan Company was very certain that Zhou Yun would not breach the contract, because his current public image was like that. If he breached it, his online persona that he had built up would directly collapse.

So there was no need to worry at all.

Zhou Yun opened the electronic contract. It was a takeout business subcontracting agreement, with Capital Hongquan Company and Hexi Province Lixia Services Co., Ltd. as the contracting parties.

Seeing this, Zhou Yun quickly checked the equity penetration he had researched earlier. Indeed, this Lixia Company was the major shareholder of Goufei Company, with 100% control!

It wasn’t easy, but he finally caught the other party’s weakness.

So now the situation was relatively clear: Lixia Company subcontracted the takeout business in Anping City from Hongquan Company.

Then, they might have cooperated with Langxin Company, where Langxin Company would set up stations, recruit riders, and further cooperate with the riders.

However, the fee settlement was entrusted to Goufei Company, which they controlled, and Goufei Company entrusted Emperor Capital Qianbao Management Company to handle the payments.

Once the legal logic was clear, things became much simpler. Without a doubt, Duan Liwei definitely had a labor relationship with Langxin Company!

First, both parties were qualified entities.

Secondly, Duan Liwei worked at a station under Langxin Company, had to attend weekly meetings, contact the station manager for leave, and was subject to assessments. These were all manifestations of accepting management, and his remuneration was based on delivery.

Finally, Langxin Company contracted the takeout delivery business from Goufei Company, so this business was a component of Langxin Company’s operations.

Previously, the second point was rejected by the Arbitration Committee, which held that Duan Liwei received remuneration from another company, and therefore his work was not “remunerated labor arranged by the employer.”

But now it could be clarified that although Goufei Company paid the money, this business belonged to Langxin Company.

One’s thinking must penetrate; one must discard useless information.

This Goufei Company was very likely a settlement company specifically set up for this purpose, which was why it had zero insured employees and its industrial and commercial registration address couldn’t be found.

Some people would certainly be curious, wouldn’t such a company be flagged as operating abnormally during corporate annual inspections?

Then you are too naive. Having worked in this industry for a long time, there are many ways to deal with annual inspections.

For more troublesome cases, they would simply establish it for one year, cancel it when the year was up, and then re-register a new one after the new year.

So, riders can actually pay close attention to the payment notes for their wages; the company name there might change frequently…

This isn't me making things up; it's exactly how it is in real cases, because some people in reality play even more tricks, canceling after half a year and then signing new contracts…

So much so that when some riders tried to defend their rights, they found that the company that paid their wages had already been canceled. After tracing the financial records and checking with the industrial and commercial bureau, they found that it changed every six months…

It can truly be said that in order to circumvent potential labor dispute risks, these companies have pushed the law to its extreme!

And now, to ensure a win, they also needed to apply to the Court for an investigation order to investigate the contract signed between Langxin Company and Lixia Company, to see how the two parties agreed on salary settlement.

Overall, the case was simpler than he had imagined, and now, Zhou Yun knew with certainty that the relationship between these three companies was definitely not that simple.

This step was the right one. If he hadn’t taken this step and just sued, there was a high probability that it would be like the previous situation, suing a bunch of companies one by one, only to find that none of them had a labor relationship.

Next, he would prepare to sue. Once the labor relationship was established, he could apply for workers’ compensation recognition.