The Renmin Road police station is also very close to the Yuefu Residential Complex.
Tang Fangjing had actually never dealt with this place before, as he either engaged in criminal private prosecution or went directly to the sub-bureau to report economic crimes; he had really never been to the police station.
That won't do, as a professional lawyer, how could he possibly never visit a police station?
The big brother in charge of the Economic Investigation, whom he had met by chance last time, was almost going bald; it wouldn't be fair not to spread the wealth and contribute some performance to the comrades at the police station.
Although the comrades at the grassroots level are already too busy to need performance recognition...
Officer Ge, who was on duty, was indeed very busy. The population density near the Renmin Road police station was terrifyingly high, which naturally meant a scary high volume of police cases.
At the first sign of trouble, people think of calling the police, and one person nearly wishes to split into three to cope.
He had just finished a task and was about to take a bite of instant noodles when he saw the door to the station pushed open and a young man walked in with a briefcase in hand.
"Hey, wait a minute, what's the matter?" Officer Ge put down his noodles and called out.
"Hello, comrade, I've come to report a case." The young man at the door smiled, looking very amiable.
Another problem, Officer Ge said, "Alright, tell me what happened."
"It's a case of refusing to pay labor remuneration. Look here, officer, this is the Decision Document from the arbitration tribunal, and here is the evidence that the company boss withdrew the related funds, then here is the evidence that several migrant workers were blocked on WeChat and their calls went unanswered..."
Clearly having taken the money but not paying the people, becoming uncontactable through communication means, playing disappearing acts—this is obviously malicious intent, and there's substantial evidence.
You can engage any lawyer to argue that you had no ill intent or that you had this or that reason, but you can go and see if the judge accepts it.
Officer Ge was a bit slow to react to the evidence in front of him, not because of anything else but mainly because the evidence was too well-organized.
What type of evidence is this, whether it's material evidence or documentary evidence, how it was obtained, what the objective was... it's all written clearly and legibly.
Even someone who doesn't understand criminal law at all would find it crystal clear upon inspection.
Moreover, this guy had even taken the trouble to note down the relevant legal provisions and judicial interpretations, with each phrase clearly tagged to its evidentiary purpose.
In all fairness, Officer Ge had been a cop for many years, but this was the first time he encountered this type of report.
Is this evidence really meant for a police report? It feels a bit surreal, when have grassroots police officers ever stumbled upon such a breeze?
This isn't just gifting performance anymore; this is having performance stuffed into one's mouth.
In front of him, Tang Fangjing looked at the stunned Officer Ge, his face revealing a strange smile as he said, "Comrade? Comrade? Do you think I can file a case with this evidence?"
Compared to civil matters, criminal law was his forte; in his previous life, he often made these kinds of "feeding" reports, to the point where the local police stations near his residential complex didn't want him to move away later on... This text is hosted at N()velFire.net
It's also an enduring concept with Old Tang; the evidence dossiers he put together had to be clear enough for even those who didn't understand the law to comprehend.
Legalese was for communication with professionals.
Of course, this issue has also led to much debate within the legal community; some believe that legal documents such as complaints and decision documents must use legalese to demonstrate the justice of the judiciary!
But similarly, there are those who feel this isn't quite right. Take, for instance, the Decision Documents, which are written for the parties involved and the general public. The average person may not understand what all that legalese means.
Many Decision Documents are so confusing that the parties themselves are still befuddled after reading them for ages, requiring further explanation...
Regardless of what others thought, Old Tang simply went about things his way.
For Officer Ge, having a complete and closed chain of evidence, with the evidence collection process being legal and highly probative, meant that, for their police station in criminal cases, the most tedious part of the job was already done.
Nowadays, some public security new media outlets make it seem that police work is just that—arresting people and such. But, in reality, making an arrest is only a part of the work.
The arrest might be satisfying, but the various issues surrounding evidence and procedural matters that come afterwards are the real hassle. Such shows are not well-liked by frontline officers because they're only responsible for making the arrests, while the nitty-gritty work falls on those at the grassroots level.
Officer Ge finally caught on and hesitantly asked, "There's definitely no issue with filing this case. What do you do, young man?"
"Me? I'm an attorney, Tang Fangjing by name. Right now, I'm trying to recover wages for a few migrant workers who have disappeared, so I have no choice but to trouble you all," said Tang Fangjing with a smile, his expression still very amiable.
Officer Ge glanced over the evidence and then at the young man before him, suddenly remembering, "You're that Tang Fangjing? I've seen your news on the internet before."
Not just on the internet—throughout Jingzhou City's political and legal system, his name was being talked about. They said this young man had an exceptional understanding of the law, and his actions were always surprising.
Now it appeared to be true. Previously, cases of refusal to pay labor remuneration were generally transferred by labor arbitration and related departments.
"Just wait here a moment. This situation is a bit... well, a bit special. I'll report it to the station chief, and we should be able to file this case today."
After all the effort put in, it wouldn't do to send people back to wait.
Ten minutes later, Officer Ge looked at Station Chief Wang and said, "Chief, this is the situation at hand."
Station Chief Wang, who was flipping through the evidence while chewing on a toothpick, finally commented, "This young man... his mind, I wonder how it works."
After thinking it over, he continued, "Proceed with filing the case. I approve. Also, we'll need to investigate Xiangkun Company and that other major shareholder, Lei Peng. There are many uncertainties surrounding them both."
"When public security handles a case, we must investigate any doubts!" Outside the police station, Tang Fangjing, holding the notification of the case filing, was saying on the phone.
"So rest assured, this case should progress swiftly."
Auditing is hard enough on its own, let alone identifying specific issues, making it even more troublesome.
If you want to "pierce through the company's facade," you need to check if there is any financial mingling between the shareholders and the company and whether the shareholders have turned the company into their puppet.
All of these involve specialized knowledge. Even with a lawyer's investigation order, Old Tang would find it difficult to scrutinize as lawyers are just lawyers, not sorcerers.
Clearly, a few migrant workers couldn't afford to hire a third-party institution for an audit.
So, the only alternative was to leverage the power of the public security organs. After all, they're obliged to investigate these concerns, and they also have professional financial investigation departments, which can conduct inquiries faster than third-party institutions and provide more substantial evidence.
This approach had been used by Tang Fangjing in his previous life numerous times to great success—it was also effective during the last homeowners' committee audit, earning unanimous praise from those who utilized it.
Why go through all this trouble? To prevent a certain situation: if the money retrieved was all spent, then even if the arbitration ruled in their favor, enforcement would be impossible.
Having handled this matter, the next step was to keep waiting. Unfortunately, with no suitable cases at hand, he could only waste valuable time waiting, which pained Old Tang greatly.