220: You asked and I have to answer?

It was impossible to stay outdoors in Anping City during midsummer; it was simply too hot.

Even the sparrows on the branches were too lazy to chirp, and the street dogs lay in the shade, panting with their tongues out.

But people still had to work; if they didn't work, they wouldn't eat.

It was in such weather that Zhou Yun arrived at the Changhua District Court, preparing to sue Langxin Company to confirm the existence of an employment relationship between them.

Protecting one's rights is never easy; either you pay a Lawyer to handle everything, or you have to run around yourself.

And paying a Lawyer doesn't mean you don't have to worry; who knows what kind of Lawyer you'll get? If you encounter an irresponsible one, or one with a pile of cases, then you're in for a wait.

There are Lawyers who are so careless they forget the time and miss Court appearances, and Lawyers with too many cases who can't fit them in and negotiate extensions with the Judge; truly, all sorts of people exist.

That case of the Lawyer who forgot to appear in Court is a particularly classic one in the Lawyer circle, almost textbook-worthy.

It was an administrative compensation lawsuit related to forced demolition, involving a target amount of over six million yuan, and guess what? A case worth over six million yuan, and the Lawyer forgot to appear in Court…

From an ordinary person's perspective, this is a bit too outrageous, but it really happened; he truly forgot to appear.

So what happens when you forget to appear in Court? According to regulations, if the plaintiff fails to appear on time, the case is treated as a withdrawal. The Presiding Judge at the time barely hesitated and directly treated it as a withdrawal.

In administrative litigation, once you withdraw, you cannot refile the lawsuit for the same reason, or rather, “not allowing refiling is the principle, allowing refiling is the exception.”

You must have new evidence, new reasons, etc., to refile.

Later, they tried to refile, but all three levels of Court, up to the Provincial High Court, refused to accept the case.

Having no other option, the parties turned their attention to the law firm, saying, “Since your problem has made it impossible now, you compensate us.”

Of course, the law firm wouldn't compensate them just because they asked. So, the parties sued the law firm.

The Court ruled that the law firm and the Lawyer involved should pay compensation. The lawsuit sought over nine million yuan. The first and second instance Courts ruled that the law firm should pay 1.05 million yuan (the five thousand was the previous Lawyer's fee), and the Lawyer involved should pay 4.95 million yuan.

Added together, it was basically the amount of the forced demolition compensation… The Court here was quite interesting.

And the Lawyer profession generally has a mandatory insurance called Lawyer's liability insurance, which is for compensation in such situations.

And guess what? The insurance company refused to pay, haha…

Then the law firm started bickering and litigating with the insurance company. This kind of thing, even novels wouldn't dare to write; if they did, readers would surely lambast them, saying, “You must be an idiot to write such a plot. How could a Lawyer forget to appear in Court for a case worth over six million yuan?”

So, protecting one's rights is truly difficult.

Zhou Yun had already taken a number at the Changhua District Court; the number of people here was relatively not too many, so he only waited twenty minutes before hearing the call number machine.

Standing up, he went to the window, and Zhou Yun handed in the materials he had brought.

The staff member inside the window took them, looked them over, and casually asked, “Labor dispute, has it been arbitrated?”

Zhou Yun immediately replied, “It has already been arbitrated; the arbitration award is below.”

The staff member pulled out the arbitration award, glanced at it, and then frowned, saying, “Confirming an employment relationship for a food delivery rider? You weren't the Lawyer during the arbitration, were you?”

“Correct, I took over the case after losing the arbitration,” Zhou Yun quickly replied.

The staff member inside might usually be more talkative. At this moment, while looking at the materials, he said, “Why bother suing for cases like this? The risk is too high. Don't you Lawyers remind them?”

“Let me see the complaint… Hey, you got this regional subcontracting agreement?”

The staff member looked up at Zhou Yun in front of him. How could he get his hands on this thing?

Zhou Yun immediately smiled and nodded, “Yes, I got that agreement. So now, when I sue, I also need to apply for an investigation order. I want to check the agreement between Langxin Company and Lixia Company.”

A Lawyer's investigation order is certainly not issued lightly; it must be confirmed that the item to be investigated is related to the case, and that the Lawyer and the party themselves cannot investigate it.

Only when these two conditions are met can an investigation order be issued.

If he didn't have this subcontracting agreement, Zhou Yun wouldn't be able to get an investigation order. The only thing he could investigate was the agreement between Langxin Company and Goufei Company.

However, considering the current situation, if he hadn't taken that step before, but instead directly sued and obtained an investigation order, there would basically be no result.

Because Langxin and Goufei Companies have no relationship whatsoever, nothing would be found.

Doing so would only lead to a procedural dead end, with no progress, but instead wasting a lot of time, and the likelihood of losing the lawsuit would be very high.

The staff member had already seen Zhou Yun's application. He wasn't particularly surprised, just felt that the name of the handsome young man in front of him seemed familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

“Lawyer Zhou, right? You want to apply for an investigation order for this case, but I don't see any connection, do I? Is Lixia Company related to this case?”

Zhou Yun replied, “Of course it's related. The agreement I obtained from Capital Hongquan Company clearly states that Lixia Company is the contractor for Anping City's food delivery business.”

“That is to say, theoretically, all food delivery business in Anping City should be handled by Anping City.”

“However, Langxin Company is responsible for recruitment, and Langxin Company is also responsible for rider management. This indicates that Langxin Company must have a relationship with Lixia Company. Otherwise, why would Langxin Company be doing this business?”

After listening, the staff member said, “I feel your reason is not very sufficient. It's not easy to issue an investigation order with such a reason.”

“This is, after all, their contract…”

“Alright, you can go for now. The materials have been received, and we will contact you later.”

Hearing this, Zhou Yun said, “Then you should at least issue me a receipt for whether it's accepted or not, right? If there's nothing, what do I do later?”

The staff member directly said, “No receipt is needed. Someone will contact you later. Alright, move along quickly.”

Zhou Yun smiled, or rather, this was the familiar feeling. In his previous life, he had been held up like this too many times for case filing.

When suing and submitting materials, you must get a receipt. It will have a date on it, which proves the filing time.

Time is very important in litigation. The decision on whether to file a case within seven days after filing is based on the receipt.

Now the other party is giving nothing, clearly intending to delay.

The staff member was still talking, and Zhou Yun directly interrupted him:

“You asked so many questions, and I've already spent time answering you. And now you won't even give me a receipt?”

It wasn't that he was being difficult, but that the other party's demeanor was clearly intentionally making things difficult. Logically, a window staff member doesn't need to ask so many questions.

He only needs to conduct a formal review of the materials to see if anything is missing. If everything is normal, then it's accepted.

If something is missing, he should inform them all at once for supplementation, or if it doesn't meet the filing conditions, simply refuse to accept it directly.

What he asked about the investigation order was useless, because ultimately, that decision would certainly not be made by him.

Before litigation, it's the head of the Case Filing Division; during the litigation phase, it's decided by the collegiate panel; for summary procedures, it's decided by the sole Judge.

As soon as he got the materials, he started talking, implying that Lawyers were deceiving people and there was no need to sue at all.

Then he talked about the investigation order, and later wouldn't even give a receipt.

Zhou Yun never tolerated such situations and directly confronted him.

The staff member's face immediately darkened as he said, “So what? I can't even ask a question?”

Zhou Yun said naturally, “I've written my reasons clearly and plainly in the application, but you haven't even looked at them carefully and then started asking questions.”

“Am I obligated to answer you? Since when does your window need to conduct a substantive review of materials?”

The regulation is formal review. What is formal review? It means checking if anything is missing; if not, it's fine. The content doesn't need to be looked at carefully; that's the Judge's job.

Hearing Zhou Yun's words, the staff member directly said, “What do you mean by that? You mean I asked too many unnecessary questions, right…?”

Immediately, everyone around looked over, and the other people inside the window also looked over.