Chapter 231: Let's Have a Real Duel! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

August 29th, sunny, very auspicious, suitable for weddings, raising the roof beam, filing a lawsuit, and opening court.

The benefit of having a specialized team is that one doesn't need to do everything oneself; one only needs to control the big picture.

For instance, right now, Zhou Yi has driven to the Guangming District People's Court, while back at the Company, the professional Self-Media Studio team is working "forgetting to eat and sleep" on videos.

There's no helping it; with 108 Employees, plus the cleaning auntie and security uncle hired through labor dispatch, there are at least several dozen video or audio materials among so many people.

If it were just Zhou Yi alone, he would be editing until the end of time!

Besides, he himself is no editing expert; the results he has now are all thanks to the hardcore plot. By comparison, the clips edited by the professional technicians in the Self-Media Studio are even better than what he edits himself.

And so, Zhou Mouren played the role of the unscrupulous client once again, gave the relevant requirements, and then patted his butt and came to the Court to watch the show.

The reason is simple: he heard that Fang Dazhuang is about to meet his match!

Just yesterday afternoon, following the old habit, he had a cup of coffee with Fang Dazhuang before the court session.

Unexpectedly, halfway through the coffee, Fang Dazhuang took a call, and after returning, his eyes were glowing.

He kept muttering inexplicable things like "Finally, I can meet a proper opponent," "Let's start a professional duel," and "Zhou Yi, it turns out you aren't toxic."

With a situation like this, even if you told Zhou Yi that Fang Dazhuang was fine, he wouldn't believe it.

The last time this happened, it was Wang Daoren; the time before that, it was also Wang Daoren; and the time before that, it was Zhou Cainiao.

When Fang Dazhuang was like this at the very beginning, Zhou Yi would always keep a little distance.

Really, it's hard to imagine that a forty-year-old man could be so chuunibyou.

It's just that he absolutely wouldn't dare say this in front of Fang Dazhuang.

Once Fang Dazhuang stopped this behavior, Zhou Yi finally understood: it turns out Fang Dazhuang has an opponent this time!

Unlike Zhou Cainiao, Wang Daoren, or Section Chief Zhong, who were a bit afraid upon hearing Fang Dazhuang's name, this person simply felt that if you are a Lawyer, and you get scared just because someone else has a big reputation, then you might as well quit.

Why don't we all stop the Debate, just open court and compare whose fame is greater to decide the winner; what's the point of having stages like evidence presentation, Cross-examination, and Court Debate?

Unsurprisingly, Fang Dazhuang's reaction was that these words were absolutely correct!

Ever since he started his career, Fang Dazhuang has been constantly challenging, so he was very happy to hear this, especially happy!

Why? Because in the legal profession, if you want to go deeper into this line of work, the most important point is: do not follow blindly, absolutely do not follow blindly!

In life, some people always say in a Debate, "This is the statement of such-and-such famous expert," and then it's as if this statement is completely correct, as if it were absolute truth.

In the legal profession, this definitely won't do. The Court decides cases based on facts and takes the law as its yardstick; everything must depend on the actual situation and evidence, not on a Lawyer's fame.

Word is that the Lawyer's surname is Huo, named Huo Pengfei!

So Fang Dazhuang downed his coffee in one gulp and planned to head straight back to the law firm; he wanted to be even more diligent, even more diligent.

This Lawsuit is worth fighting; whether it's Return One Compensate Three or Mental Damage Compensation, there are actually quite a few points of contention, and it purely depends on the level of both sides.

"Zhou Yi, you're here." A voice sounded from the side. Fang Dazhuang, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, walked over with his briefcase slung over his shoulder. Behind him, Zhou Xinran also had slightly dark circles under her eyes.

Although Goddess Xinran doesn't care about her own appearance, it doesn't mean she ignores these things; she still doesn't skip her daily skincare routine.

It can only be said that Fang Dazhuang must have worked overtime last night, and Zhou Xinran followed suit.

And while Fang Dazhuang was full of energy after sleeping for four hours, Zhou Xinran was there constantly yawning.

"Mm, Fang Dazhuang, morning. Are you confident today?" Zhou Yi joked.

Fang Dazhuang turned his head to glance at him and said, "You're talking to me about confidence?"

He shook his head and looked at the Court ahead: "Do you know what it means to have it in the bag?"

Fine, he shouldn't have made that joke; he got shown up by him again. Behind him, Zhou Xinran had already instantly turned into a little fan girl.

"Let's go in. Oh, Lawyer Huo, you're here."

It was Fang Dazhuang, just as he was about to call them to go in, suddenly calling out.

Lawyer Huo? Is that Fang Dazhuang's opponent?

Zhou Yi turned his head to look and saw a middle-aged Lawyer with thick black hair walking over, wearing black-rimmed glasses and also carrying a shoulder bag.

Only, that President Zhao was nowhere to be seen.

This is also normal; if many companies are involved in Litigation, the bosses won't come to Court.

At a glance, Zhou Yi knew that this Lawyer Huo was definitely not as good as Fang Dazhuang. Look at that hair—what strong person isn't bald!

Having been called, Huo Pengfei immediately saw Fang Dazhuang, took two quick steps over, reached out his hand, and said, "Teacher Fang, morning. Please offer your guidance today."

Huo Pengfei is a typical traditional Lawyer; he doesn't feel anything just because Fang Dazhuang has a big reputation, but in front of the other party, he won't lack the proper etiquette.

Not to mention that the other party is a senior in this line of work, mainly because the other party has served as a Guest Professor at Handong Political Science and Law for many years; Huo Pengfei himself has even attended Fang Dazhuang's lectures.

So, there can definitely be no lack of etiquette in this regard.

"Eh, why talk about guidance." Fang Dazhuang smiled very happily: "What you said is very right; our line of work relies on real substance, not some fame."

He never blindly believes in authority, even if he is an authority himself now; if it needs to be scolded, he will scold it!

The court session was about to start, so everyone didn't say much more and soon entered the Court. In the familiar Second Civil Court, Zhou Yi walked to the Litigation Agent's seat, his movements so practiced they were heartbreaking.

His parents are the true Plaintiffs in this case; Zhou Yi, like Fang Dazhuang, is a Litigation Agent.

The Civil Procedure Law stipulates that close relatives can act as agents.

Not long after, a straight-faced Li Xusheng walked in. Zhou Yi looked up and thought: are you the only Judge in the Guangming District Court's civil division?

Even if it's a production team... you can't use someone this intensely.

Li Xusheng looked at Zhou Yi expressionlessly. Recently, there have been fewer cases than before, and the overtime hasn't been as severe. Thank heavens, at least he can get some good rest.

Although Judges also need performance metrics, if a guy suddenly pops up and finishes your year's worth of metrics in one month, would you say you hate him, or hate him?

Thinking of the overtime during the Internet Violence case last month, it was truly agonizing.

"Alright, court is now in session!"

Both sides have already confirmed they refuse Mediation.

The Presiding Judge is Li Xusheng, next to him is the Judge, and there is also a People's Juror; this is a standard Collegial Panel.

As for the previous court session where there was only Lao Li, that was following the Summary Procedure.

After the routine procedures, the stage of evidence presentation and cross-examination began.

In accordance with the principle of "Burden of Proof," Lawyer Fang naturally began presenting evidence.

On Zhou Yi's side, besides evidence such as the opposing Company's registered address and the company's legal representative, the main pieces of evidence were the contract, and the video and audio evidence filmed by Zhou Yi's parents while on the vehicle, at the shopping stores, and other locations.

As well as the words spoken by the salesperson, Zhou Xiaoxiao, during the initial promotion.

To be honest, Huo Pengfei had already prepared for these pieces of evidence, such as the contract.

"We have no objection to its authenticity, but we object to its probative value. This contract does not explicitly state that shopping is not allowed on this tour, nor does it stipulate Breach of Contract Liability regarding relevant aspects; therefore, it cannot prove that there was consumer fraud in this tour group."

His defense strategy had two prongs. The first was the contract itself; just as Zhou Xinran had seen earlier, this contract was not of the very complex kind.

It did mention a Pure Play Tour, but Huo Pengfei placed the focus on the agreement between the two parties, noting that it did not say they would not go to shopping stores; this was the key point.

The second prong was those video pieces of evidence.

To be honest, in our country, there are no such strict requirements for civil evidence, or rather, for the means of evidence collection.

This involves the Western Poisonous Tree Doctrine; can the fruit borne on a poisonous tree be eaten?

However, our country does not take a one-size-fits-all approach to this; for example, if you obtain video evidence through secret filming, the judge will not simply dismiss it outright.

It is just that Huo Pengfei could still use this aspect as a reason to conduct cross-examination and rebuttal.

These videos of yours were all filmed secretly, so there is a problem with their probative value.

Furthermore, it was because of your parents' secret filming that the tour guide's verbal abuse was triggered.

Therefore, your claim for Mental Damage Compensation should be directed at that tour guide; the Defendant is not the proper subject.

Huo Pengfei had prepared for all this evidence, but what caught him off guard was a piece of evidence submitted by Lawyer Fang on the last day of the evidence submission period.

That was the sales records and reviews of the Xingtianxia Travel Agency on a certain third-party platform.

Nowadays, travel agencies basically all have online stores; Xingtianxia was originally what Zhou Yi's parents had seen online.

And previously, Xingtianxia Travel Agency naturally had quite a few sales of Pure Play Tours, and when consumers on Pure Play Tours were taken shopping, they were naturally unhappy.

It is just that there are not many people like Zhou Yi who fight to the very end; most people at most leave a negative review on that platform.

Saying that this Pure Play Tour still required shopping...

Actually, a simple negative review is nothing; the key is that the evidence showed the account certified by the platform as the Xingtianxia merchant replied, expressing deep apologies, and then saying that there was currently no behavior of forced shopping.

It is not forced shopping, it is just that you cannot leave while others are buying things...

There were many similar reviews, all of which Lawyer Fang had found.

And then Huo Pengfei was a bit dumbfounded.

As the presentation and cross-examination of evidence concluded one by one, Zhou Yi found it quite satisfying; this Lawyer Huo indeed had some skills compared to Zhou Cainiao.

Next came the Court Debate segment.

The main issue of the debate was whether the travel agency's behavior toward Zhou Yi's parents constituted consumer fraud!

This was the key to deciding whether to implement "Return One Compensate Three."

"The Travel Contract is a mixed contract based on tourism products, and a tourism product itself involves many service providers. In this case, when our operator provided the consumer service of a Pure Play Tour, there was no subjective intent to defraud."

"And the reason why the shopping behavior occurred was because there was a problem with the service of the Ground Handling Agency, which was something our operator could not have foreseen; therefore, there was no consumer fraud."

Huo Pengfei said there.

The four Constitutive Elements of consumer fraud: first, the operator must have subjective intent to defraud; second, there must be fraudulent behavior; third, the consumer must have fallen into a wrong judgment due to the operator's behavior; and fourth, the consumer must have made a declaration of intent based on the wrong judgment.

In plain language, it means I want to cheat you, and I performed the action of cheating you, and the result is that you were cheated by me.

Many times when we buy things online and get fake goods, why does the claim for "Return One Compensate Three" fail? The reason is simple: you need to prove that the merchant online intended to cheat you.

This is when the previous evidence came into play.

Lawyer Fang spoke up: "From the previous reviews and replies on the third-party travel platform, it is clear that Xingtianxia Travel Agency knew that shopping situations also existed on Pure Play Tours. They did not explain this when selling the Pure Play Tours, so it can be determined that the travel agency had subjective intent to defraud!"

"In addition, it can be determined from the tour guide's abusive words that the other party engaged in verbal abuse precisely because our client did not shop. This verbal abuse lasted for nearly a minute, seriously damaging our client's right of personality."

The ability of a famous lawyer is never reflected in this moment in court.

Just watching the trial, many people would have the feeling of "I could do that too"; isn't it just reading from a script? Who wouldn't know how to do that?

However, Zhou Yi could also see that this man named Huo Pengfei was still working hard.

It is just a pity that once there is a problem with the key evidence, no matter how eloquent one is, those debate words all feel like empty talk.

In the gallery, Su Dama was constantly taking notes in her notebook; this is a classic case of Case Interpretation!

Finally, the Court Debate ended, Li Xusheng announced a recess, and the Collegial Panel began their deliberations.

About half an hour later, the court reconvened, and the Collegial Panel delivered the Judgment on the spot!

"This court believes... in accordance with the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the Civil Code... the Judgment is as follows:"

Refund the tour fee of 9,600 yuan, plus triple compensation and Mental Damage Compensation, over 40,000 yuan, not a single cent less.

This even made Lawyer Fang feel a bit surprised, because according to his original experience, for this type of case, the Evidence Chain on his side was actually not completely perfect.

So usually, there would be a discretionary judgment—remember the word "discretionary," it will be on the test; this is the embodiment of the judge's Free Discretion, especially when there is no provision for a specific calculated amount.

But it is also good, better than imagined. This case is finally done; Breach of Contract Liability and Mental Damage Compensation, this is the application of the New Civil Code!

After the Judgment came down, Huo Pengfei made a phone call and immediately filed an Appeal in court!

Whether to file an Appeal is someone else's right; Zhou Yi will not say anything more. However, with the First Instance Judgment, plus those previous materials, his own video can now be made!

This episode of the video will be a bit long; I wonder what kind of impact it will cause when the time comes. Zhou Yi is looking forward to it.

In this incident, he, Zhou Yi, was just a bystander; the lead actor was President Zhao!

By the evening, the Company had already sent over the edited sample.

Tapping the microphone, Zhou Yi began the voiceover!

"Hello, my dear audience, I am your old friend A Yi..."

This morning's throat-soothing chapter, good morning everyone, asking for leave yesterday was really inappropriate.

Thanks to naihe, niaraeth, arctan, the driver who never drives, the person waiting for dark, another newbie, thanks to everyone for the tips, there will be a burst of updates today.

(End of chapter)