Chapter 142: You Still Want to Argue a Few More Sentences? Argue My Hammer!

After Du Linmu struck the gavel and reminded Li Shuangjun, his gaze swept across the courtroom.

As the presiding judge, he had tried no fewer than one hundred cases, large and small.

In these one hundred hearings, he had seen many trial lawyers attempt to use minor procedural rules to create situations in which opposing counsel could not state key litigation arguments in court.

He personally disliked this kind of situation very much.

In court.

If you can state the legal basis, then state the legal basis. If you can produce favorable evidence, then produce favorable evidence.

If there are reasonable, lawful, and compliant means that can be used, then use reasonable, lawful, and compliant means.

As to the above, I absolutely do not favor either side.

But engaging in these little maneuvers.

In Du Linmu’s view, there was only one word for it: unacceptable.

Although other presiding judges might not necessarily do the same, during his tenure as presiding judge, this was how he required things to be done.

In hearings over which he presided, such conduct was not permitted.

Bang bang!

After Du Linmu briefly summarized Su Bai’s earlier statement and extracted the key issues from it, he looked toward Su Bai at the litigating party’s seat and slowly spoke.

“The litigating party may now continue its statement.”

“Yes, Presiding Judge.”

Having grasped the presiding judge’s disposition, Su Bai let out a long breath and continued his statement:

“The determination that our side committed insurance fraud was based on the above three points, and the prosecution also agrees with this.”

“Here, I would like to ask the prosecution, if both He Dongsheng’s mother and He Dongsheng were subjected to inducive questioning by Quan’an Insurance, and it was thereby determined that there existed a subjective intent to commit insurance fraud, then would this evidence no longer qualify as substantive evidence?”

Hu Bing: “Yes. According to Article 52 of the Criminal Procedure Law, it would not qualify as substantive evidence.”

“Presiding Judge, I would like to ask several questions of Lawyer Gu Bin at the litigated party’s seat.”

“They are materially connected with this case.”

Bang bang!

“The application is approved.”

“The litigating party may ask questions, but remember to comply with courtroom order, and do not ask matters unrelated to the case, or questions with a tendentious character, otherwise the court has the right to terminate your questioning.”

“Yes, Presiding Judge.”

Su Bai looked toward Gu Bin at the litigated party’s seat.

Gu Bin knew what Su Bai wanted to say, and directly met Su Bai’s gaze.

Su Bai looked at Gu Bin’s face and slowly spoke:

“Lawyer Gu, I would like to ask whether you privately came into contact with He Dongsheng’s mother and with He Dongsheng at that time.”

“Yes.”

Gu Bin nodded. His answer was crisp and direct, without saying one extra word.

Su Bai continued asking:

“Then what was your purpose in contacting and questioning He Dongsheng’s mother?”

“Purpose? The purpose was to fulfill the responsibilities of our legal department.”

“Our legal department has both the responsibility and the obligation to come into contact with the purchasers of Quan’an Insurance, the beneficiaries, and the insured persons.”

“At the same time, I would also like to ask the litigating party’s lawyer, what relationship do these two questions of yours have with this case?”

Turning the tables.

Gu Bin directly asked Su Bai a question in return.

Su Bai smiled and nodded. “Of course they are related. The party that insurance should contact first should be the policyholder and the insured. The circumstances of the beneficiary are divided into many types, and should be the last party to be questioned.”

“But Lawyer Gu directly questioned the beneficiary, which instead is somewhat unreasonable.”

“At the same time, I would also like to ask, what content did Lawyer Gu question He Dongsheng’s mother about at that time?”

Gu Bin smiled. He understood Su Bai’s meaning.

Su Bai’s probable line of thinking was that he wanted, through the present questioning, to confirm that Gu Bin’s questioning did indeed possess a certain degree of induciveness.

And this was still not the most important part. The most important part was that Su Bai was laying groundwork.

Groundwork for what?

Groundwork for the malicious accusation by Quan’an Insurance Company against He Dongsheng in the litigation claim.

That was why he kept asking him these questions.

He wanted to search for loopholes in his words in order to attack him.

After all, in a matter like this, Su Bai could completely have refrained from asking him.

Questioning the client first or examining the corresponding evidence would both have been far simpler than questioning him.

At the same time, Gu Bin also understood clearly in his heart that the key to this hearing lay in whether his prior questioning had possessed malicious induciveness.

The evidence previously submitted did indeed possess a certain degree of induciveness, and that point could not be denied.

But this point could entirely be argued, and the final determination lay in the hands of the presiding judge.

After thinking through these matters, Gu Bin casually laughed it off:

“Lawyer Su, regarding the content of my earlier questioning, I cannot necessarily reproduce it completely, but evidence has been provided. If Lawyer Su wishes to know, then you may confirm the content of my questioning at that time through the evidence.”

“Because this question involves legal rigor, I cannot answer it directly.”

“Alright, thank you.”

Su Bai smiled and nodded.

At the same time, he also silently recited in his heart: indeed.

The other side had an extremely firm grasp on the little courtroom routines and other people’s little thoughts.

Gu Bin was not wrong. The reason he was asking so many questions was precisely to find some loopholes through Gu Bin.

Yet Gu Bin directly threw the question away, leaving him no opportunity whatsoever.

Tsk tsk.

It really did feel a little like two litigation tricksters facing each other.

It seemed this hearing would not be easy to fight.

The principal determination still had to rely upon evidence and legal basis.

And in this kind of hearing involving subjective judgment, the presiding judge’s decisional inclination was also required.

However.

Su Bai had a certain psychological expectation when encountering this sort of situation.

After being refused an answer by Gu Bin.

Su Bai let out a long breath, then slightly raised his head and looked toward the presiding judge’s seat as he spoke:

“Presiding Judge, since counsel for the litigated party cannot accurately answer our question, our side applies to question the client so that he may state the circumstances at that time.”

Bang bang!

“The application is approved. The litigating party may now question the client for his statement.”

“Yes, Presiding Judge.”

Su Bai looked toward He Dongsheng at the client’s seat and asked:

“Can the client clearly remember the questioning that the legal lawyer of Quan’an Insurance directed at you at that time?”

“Yes.”

“Very well.”

“Please now generally state it once. There is no need for specific and detailed description. It is sufficient only to describe the general content clearly.”

“The approximate content was that at that time the legal lawyer of Quan’an Insurance, namely Lawyer Gu who is now seated in the courtroom, kept asking me whether I had thoughts of insurance fraud.”

“And how did you answer?”

“My answer was that I did not have thoughts of insurance fraud.”

“Then Lawyer Gu asked again, if I did not have thoughts of insurance fraud, why I was preparing litigation to sue Quan’an Insurance.”

“He also asked that if I did not have thoughts of insurance fraud, why I was injured within such a short time after purchasing the insurance, and why I had purchased such a large insurance amount.”

“He also asked and said to me what else this was, if not insurance fraud.”

“There were also some other miscellaneous things. I cannot remember them all, but I remember the last point very clearly. Lawyer Gu’s approximate meaning was that he wanted me to surrender myself.”

“And what was your true reason for purchasing such a large insurance amount?”

“The true reason for purchasing such a large insurance amount was of course that if some accident were to occur, there could be more compensation.”

“The most important thing was still that, at that time, the salesperson was insistently enthusiastic in telling me to buy a large insurance amount, saying it would provide more protection for my person in the future.”

“At that time I could not refuse out of face, and that salesperson was also especially, especially enthusiastic. In my heart I thought that my work was inherently very dangerous, and if an accident really did happen, then more compensation would be paid, which would count as giving myself a form of protection, and so I bought such a large insurance amount.”

Su Bai nodded. “Did Lawyer Gu ask anything else?”

“He did. Lawyer Gu also said that my mother had already said that I had thoughts of insurance fraud, and told me to admit guilt early, but Lawyer Gu did not say it directly. He implied it to me.”

“How did he imply it?”

“He would say half a sentence and let me fill in the rest myself. For example, he said that my mother had said I had thoughts of insurance fraud, and then asked me what should be done, and similar things.”

“Do you have evidence to prove any of this?”

“No.”

“Do you take responsibility for the above statements?”

“I bear full legal responsibility for the above statements.”

“Very well.”

Su Bai nodded. “Thank you to the client for his cooperation. I have finished asking what I wanted to ask.”

After completing the questioning.

Su Bai spoke: “According to the description by our client and the evidence submitted by the litigated party at the time of filing.”

“It can be clearly seen that when Gu Bin questioned our client’s mother and our client, he carried an especially strong subjective intent.”

“He continuously guided the discussion toward the topic of our side’s insurance fraud, without making objective statements and inquiries.”

“He strongly guided the subjective intent of our client and our client’s mother.”

“And there is another point, namely that according to our client’s description, Quan’an’s legal personnel, Gu Bin, told our client that he should surrender himself.”

“Surrender? Why should he surrender?”

“And in the evidence submitted by Quan’an Legal, there is no such item. I would like to ask the lawyers of Quan’an Legal, what is the explanation for this point? Why is there no such point in the evidence you submitted?”

Faced with yet another key question from Su Bai, Li Shuangjun was silent for several seconds.

In the end, it was still answered by Gu Bin, because this case had been prepared and handled by him from the start.

He understood the circumstances at the time relatively well.

As for why there was no such point in the submitted evidence?

That was of course because he had prepared two voice recorders.

One voice recorder completely recorded the whole process, and one voice recorder recorded only part of the process.

One was submitted to the judicial authorities for filing and to the prosecution as evidence, and one was retained by himself.

As a legal trickster, what problem was there with that?

Moreover, even when the prosecution conducted verification, it would not be able to detect any problem whatsoever.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Besides, the other side also did not know about the matter of the two voice recorders.

With such a simple matter, was it still difficult to deal with?

And also, Su Bai’s question was really too easy to rebut.

Why was this point not mentioned? Very simple.

That was because your side was lying.

I accuse your side of lying. What can you do about it?

If your side wants to prove that it is not lying, then produce evidence. If you cannot produce evidence, I can also accuse you of making a false statement in court.

Do you have any way to deal with that? Evidently, not the slightest.

So after hearing Su Bai’s question, Gu Bin was laughing inwardly.

He spoke:

“The chain of evidence that we submitted is complete, and there are no traces of alteration or splicing. This point has been verified by the prosecution.”

“As for why it differs from what the client stated, our side is not clear about that.”

“However, since our side has evidence to prove its position, the client should also submit evidence.”

“Otherwise, our side has the right to suspect that the client, in the courtroom, is deliberately attacking our side with fabricated matters, in order to affect the fairness of the trial.”

How should one put it.

Quan’an Insurance’s legal department simply liked to bite back.

But.

The key point of Su Bai’s question was not here. In other words, all of his earlier questioning had been for one purpose.

That was to obtain a determination.

A determination as to whether Gu Bin’s questioning of He Dongsheng and He Dongsheng’s mother had been inducive.

As long as such a determination was made, the rest would become much simpler.

As for the key point of asking this question, it was of course to divert the opposing lawyers’ attention.

Both opposing lawyers were like old foxes.

If he wanted to engage with the other side on the basis of subjectivity and let the presiding judge make a determination through argument, then in reality this was quite a troublesome matter.

Su Bai knew that this question certainly would not produce any result.

After all, they had no substantive evidence, and the other side could rebut it as soon as it was raised.

Then why ask this question?

Ask it casually, and at the same time lay a foundation for the subsequent courtroom argument, so that the other side could not object to the determination that would appear.

This was Su Bai’s purpose!

At present, it seemed that the purpose had already been achieved.

Su Bai: “Our side applies to reject the other side’s application.”

“Our side has no evidence to show that the other side said these words to He Dongsheng, but equally, the other side has no evidence to show that it did not say these words.”

“At the same time, our side applies for a determination that the lawyers of Quan’an Insurance’s legal department improperly conducted tendentious questioning toward our side.”

Gu Bin: ????

Bang bang!

At the judicial bench, the presiding judge struck the gavel and looked toward the litigated party’s seat.

Du Linmu spoke:

“With respect to He Dongsheng’s accusation that Gu Bin advised him to surrender himself, both sides lack evidence to prove its truthfulness, and no determination will be made for the time being.”

“Does counsel for the litigated party, Gu Bin, have any objection to the other content stated by the litigating party and the client?”

These had already been recognized in the evidence.

Gu Bin: “No objection.”

Bang bang!

“The litigated party has no objection, therefore with respect to the other content alleged by the litigating party, counsel for Quan’an Insurance’s legal department failed to fulfill the impartial and fair duty of questioning that a lawyer ought to have.”

“The evidence has already been examined by the collegial panel.”

“With respect to the litigating party’s assertion that Quan’an Insurance, in communicating with He Dongsheng and his mother, possessed a certain tendentious induciveness.”

“A determination is now made. It is established as true.”

At the very moment Du Linmu’s voice fell, Gu Bin was completely stunned at the litigated party’s seat.

????

No, Presiding Judge, how did you make a determination so quickly?

Ask a few more questions.

I feel that I could still argue a few more sentences.

Du Linmu: the litigating party has already applied for a determination, and your side has no objection.

Moreover, according to the content of the statements, it indeed possessed tendentiousness, and you did not rebut on that point at all.

When I asked whether you had any objection, you told me you had no objection.

What hammer is there left to argue about!