Grassroots lawyers also have their day

"Hey! It's me. I feel like this kid can... um, Saturday, okay, I'll arrange it." After saying that, Sixth Brother hung up the phone and turned to walk into the bar.

As the bar was closing, Sixth Brother took advantage of Sister Hong's inattention and pulled Wang Chuan aside: "Saturday afternoon, don't make any other plans. Wait for my call, we need to talk about something."

"Ah! Okay." Wang Chuan was taken aback, but quickly nodded in agreement.

The next morning, when Wang Chuan entered the law firm, he was stopped by the receptionist, who handed him an express mail from the Shijiazhuang Labor Arbitration Committee.

Wang Chuan knew without even looking that it must be that labor arbitration case from before.

"Attorney Zheng, the labor arbitration case in Shijiazhuang has been resolved. The arbitrator actually ordered the company to compensate the employees and determined that the company should bear the responsibility." Wang Chuan said, handing the ruling document to Zheng Yi.

"What is all this nonsense? First they said it was an employment relationship, but not enough to constitute a work-related injury, and now they're demanding the company take responsibility. What kind of illogical logic is this?!"

"Heavens above! Earth below! Who gave her the courage to make such a judgment?! No, I have to sue in court and demand the arbitration tribunal's ruling be overturned. I'm going to call the company." Zheng Yi angrily pulled out his phone and went to the conference room to make the call.

In Zheng Yi's view, this is no longer a matter of money; it is a trampling on the knowledge he has acquired during his four years of undergraduate and three years of graduate studies in law. The ruling is utter nonsense.

The intern lawyers present were all speechless at Zheng's outburst. It was also the first time Wang Chuan had ever seen Zheng Yi lose his temper! This incident also showed Wang Chuan the tenacious spirit inherent in lawyers!

The company naturally could not accept such a ruling. After communicating with the company, Zheng Yi quickly reached an agreement: to file a lawsuit and never back down!

"Attorney Zheng, I've checked. The company is registered in Beijing, but the actual place where the worker performs their labor obligations is Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province."

According to Article 8 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases," "Labor dispute cases shall be under the jurisdiction of the basic people's court where the employer is located or where the labor contract is performed. If the place of performance of the labor contract is unclear, the basic people's court where the employer is located shall have jurisdiction." (At this time, the Civil Code had not yet been implemented, and the judicial interpretation of the labor law issued by the Supreme People's Court was still valid.)

"So the company can file a lawsuit in the court where it is registered. According to the copy of the business license provided by the company, the company is registered in Shijingshan District. We don't need to file a lawsuit in Shijiazhuang City; we can file a lawsuit directly in Shijingshan," Wang Chuan said confidently.

"Are you sure? Send me the Supreme Court's judicial interpretation." Zheng Yi was a little unsure; he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his clients, so he needed to be sure.

To be honest, Zheng Yi rarely encountered this kind of situation. In fact, he didn't care much about labor dispute cases and left them all to Wang Chuan to handle, so he naturally didn't study this kind of knowledge much.

Wang Chuan was referring to the issue of jurisdiction, which, simply put, is the question of which court to file a lawsuit in. It may sound simple, but many lawsuits are blocked from entering the court system because of jurisdictional issues. The court simply refuses to accept the case, which means that the case cannot be initiated and the plaintiff's interests cannot be protected and supported by law in real life.

Generally speaking, as companies grow larger, they inevitably set up offices or project teams in other provinces and hire local employees to do the work.

In the event of a dispute, employees will definitely choose to apply for labor arbitration locally. After receiving the hearing notice from the labor arbitration committee, the company will send someone to participate in the hearing. This is not only costly but also time-consuming and laborious. Of course, some companies are more carefree and will not care what happens to them!

If representing the employee in this type of labor arbitration, some experienced labor lawyers will add one or two requests to the application that the arbitrator will find offensive and will absolutely not support.

The intention behind such requests is not to gain the arbitrator's support, but to facilitate the struggle for court jurisdiction. Once the award is received, if all one's claims are supported, why would one file a lawsuit? Definitely not! There's no reason to file one!

However, with such a design, one or two requests will inevitably be rejected. Once the ruling is issued, the lawyer will immediately advise the worker to file a lawsuit in court to first determine the court with jurisdiction. It's like fighting a war—first secure the advantageous terrain!

If the employee does not file a lawsuit in the local court, the company has the right to file a lawsuit in the place where the company is registered if it is dissatisfied with the ruling. In this case, the employee will have to go to the place where the company is registered to participate in the court hearing, which will increase the employee's litigation costs and time costs.

These are litigation techniques that lawyers have summarized from practice. The labor dispute case that Wang Chuan is handling this time is exactly like this.

Wang Chuan began drafting the complaint. Filing a lawsuit in the Shijingshan Court would be much simpler, taking only about an hour, much closer than going to Shijingshan City itself. This saved the lawyer the trouble of traveling and also saved the client money.

Before leaving get off work in the afternoon, Wang Chuan had drafted the complaint and the attorney's statement and handed them to Zheng Yi, who then deleted a lot of content with a stroke of his pen.

"Xiao Wang! In the future, be careful when drafting indictments. Don't write too much; be concise and to the point, and just clearly explain the situation. Remember, too much talk leads to mistakes!"

Besides, judges are very busy; who wants to read long, drawn-out explanations? As long as they understand what's going on, that's enough. The purpose of the complaint is simply to initiate legal proceedings. As long as that objective is achieved, the rest can be stated in court.” Zheng Yi handed the revised complaint and legal statement to Wang Chuan, then gave him another lesson.

Pan Jinlian and Wei Ping, sitting on the side, listened intently like two little rabbits, having never been told these things before.

"Alright, print out the complaint and get it ready. Next Monday, company representatives will come to sign the contract and complete the authorization procedures. They will stamp and sign the complaint then." Zheng Yi finished speaking, stretched, and gave Wan Pangzi a look, signaling him to go downstairs for a smoke.

Wang Chuan wrote down everything Zheng Yi said and began preparing the power of attorney and indictment documents.

Just as it was about time to leave work, Mu Huaijin walked into the law firm carrying a bag.

As Mu Huaijin passed by Wang Chuan's workstation, he paused for a moment, then turned to look at the busy Wang Chuan: "Xiao Wang, do you remember Li Changjiang, the guy who negotiated with us last time? He's the one who took sick leave and was a very arrogant old fox."

"Ah!...What's wrong?" Wang Chuan asked, looking puzzled.

"He's suspected of fraud and has been transferred to the procuratorate! I heard he confessed everything the day he was called in for questioning by the police, which is considered voluntary surrender. The case is relatively simple, and I estimate it won't be long before it reaches the criminal court and a verdict will be handed down," Mu Huaijin said with a smile.

"Oh?! What goes around comes around!" Wang Chuan felt a mix of emotions. "Was it worth getting sentenced to prison for a little over ten thousand yuan?!"