Chapter 1342: Taking the Unconventional Route
Gu Nianzhi laughed so hard that she bent down. “Professor He, you’re so funny. The man offers so much, yet the woman doesn’t even need to provide the dowry?”
“Of course not.” He Zhichu decided to blabber nonsense with her. “Why would she want the dowry? The woman is already married, so why would she still want the dowry? It’s not fair.”
“Professor He, I don’t know who will be so lucky to marry you in the future,” Gu Nianzhi said earnestly. “She must have saved the Blue Planet in her past life.”
He Zhichu’s throat was suddenly choked.
He wanted to say, it’s not that the person who married me is lucky, it’s that I need a little bit of luck to marry you…
Unfortunately, he still couldn’t say anything. He could only say hesitantly, ” … my standards are too high. So far, I haven’t seen anyone who meets my standards.”
” … Too high? Actually, it’s better to have higher standards. It’s better to have less than an abundance of bad things. I admire you for this Professor He. Good luck!” Gu Nianzhi raised her arm and made a gesture of “good luck”.
He Zhichu: ” … ”
The two of them chatted nonchalanttly. He Zhichu reminded her again, “Don’t get involved in the engagement party. Let them prepare. You have to prepare well for Luo Jialan’s case. The trial is in a little more than a week. How are your preparations going?”
Gu Nianzhi felt a little ashamed.
She had been preoccupied with Huo Shaoheng’s family for the past few days and hadn’t had time to prepare for her own work.
Gu Nianzhi collected her thoughts and said earnestly, “Thank you for the reminder, Professor He. I have to prepare for the trial.”
When Gu Nianzhi stopped talking about the Huo family, He Zhichu felt relieved.
“How is it? Is there anything I can help you with?” He Zhichu sat back down at his desk and opened the laptop on his desk. “Your case actually isn’t easy to defend. The other party has hired Cai Shengnan as a defense lawyer…”
Gu Nianzhi wasn’t surprised. “I knew it. Cai Shengnan is Luo Jialan’s lawyer. She extorted six million dollars from Luo Jialan in advance. Tsk, tsk. Professor He, isn’t her hourly rate even more expensive than yours?”
He Zhichu pressed the mouse in his hand and focused on the court doc.u.ments. He ignored Gu Nianzhi’s sarcastic remarks and frowned.
“Nianzhi, the trial is in a few days. Did you get the appointment letter from the Public Prosecutor’s Office?” He Zhichu sounded very serious. “Did you continue to contact the Public Prosecutor’s office after the case was filed?”
Gu Nianzhi asked in surprise, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem?I haven’t gotten the appointment letter from the Public Prosecutor’s office yet, but… ”
But who else could it be besides her?
She had represented Song Jinning at the police station and the Public Prosecutor’s office on this case, and had successfully filed the case.
If the public prosecutor wanted an outside lawyer, she would be the best candidate.
He Zhichu instantly understood that Gu Nianzhi had taken it for granted.
He looked at the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s list of the prosecution and defense for Song Jinning and Luo Jialan’s intentional homicide. He said airily, “It’s fortunate that I asked you about it. Your name isn’t on the prosecution’s lawyer’s list.”
He Zhichu pursed his lips as he looked at the prosecutor’s list.
They were all small-time lawyers from third-rate law firms. How could these people argue with Cai Shengnan?
Wasn’t this handing the victory over to Cai Shengnan?
Cai Shengnan was no better at business than Gu Nianzhi. Perhaps it was because she had been a lobbyist for too long in the United States Congress, but Cai Shengnan’s “operational” skills were indeed much better than Gu Nianzhi’s.
He Zhichu didn’t say a word and sent the notice to Gu Nianzhi. “Take a look for yourself. The Prosecutor General’s Office’s website secretly posted the names of the prosecution’s lawyers in Song Jinning v. Luo Jialan’s case. You’re not on it.”
Criminal cases in the Huaxia Empire usually went through this process.
First, the police would investigate the case and hand it over to the Prosecutor General’s Office after they had gathered enough evidence. The Prosecutor General’s Office would then decide whether the case was prosecutable or not.
If it was, the Prosecutor General’s Office would file a case for prosecution, and at the same time, they would choose a suitable prosecution lawyer and prepare to appear in court to argue the case against the defendant’s lawyer.
Because this was a criminal case, the main body of the prosecution wasn’t the victim, nor was it the victim’s representative lawyer. Instead, it was the Prosecutor General’s Office that had filed the case for prosecution.
The Prosecutor General’s Office would then appoint a prosecutor, and the prosecutor would choose a suitable prosecution lawyer to appear in court together to argue against the defendant’s defense lawyer.
In other words, the prosecution lawyer would represent the plaintiff and the defense lawyer would represent the defendant.
Generally speaking, the prosecution lawyer was the plaintiff’s lawyer. However, the public prosecutor had to appoint a lawyer to appear in court to debate.
Gu Nianzhi had been directly appointed by the Public Prosecutor’s office to represent Luo Xinxue in her previous lawsuit against Bai Jinyi.
Gu Nianzhi had never known that there would be a problem with this.
When she saw the list of prosecution lawyers on the prosecutor’s Office’s website, she sucked in her breath.
She stared at her phone screen, and her mind went blank for a moment.
She had never thought that such a thing would happen.
Gu Nianzhi’s brows furrowed slightly. Without saying another word, she began to search for information to see under what circ.u.mstances the prosecution would not choose the plaintiff’s lawyer as the prosecutor’s lawyer.
After going through the relevant legal provisions, Gu Nianzhi discovered that in the decades of the Huaxia Empire’s Prosecutor General’s Office history, there were only three cases in which the plaintiff’s lawyer hadn’t been used as the prosecution’s lawyer.
One of the reasons was that, for the first time, the prosecution’s lawyer had been proven to be colluding with the defendant’s lawyer. This had severely harmed the interests of the plaintiff, which was his own client.
Therefore, not only did the plaintiff’s lawyer fail to appear in court as the plaintiff’s lawyer, but he was also stripped of his lawyer’s license.
For the second time, before the plaintiff’s lawyer appeared in court, he was suddenly beaten into a brain dead state by a group of people. He lay in a hospital bed for two years before he woke up. Of course, he couldn’t appear in court as the plaintiff’s lawyer.
For the third time, the plaintiff’s lawyer suddenly canceled his contract with the plaintiff before he appeared in court. The plaintiff didn’t have time to find a new lawyer to represent him, so the prosecutor’s office appointed the plaintiff’s lawyer on its own.
Therefore, the prosecutor’s office hadn’t chosen the plaintiff’s lawyer to represent the plaintiff in court because it was an undeniable factor.
This time, the prosecutor’s office had quietly removed her name from the prosecution’s lawyer list without giving her a single reason.
They had even secretly placed the public notice in an inconspicuous place on the Internet. Were they planning to get it over with?
Gu Nianzhi held her phone to her ear and sneered. “This prosecutor is really something. I wonder how much money she received from Cai Shengnan.”
“Cai Shengnan has been a lawyer in American politics for many years. Even if she wanted to bribe the prosecutor, she would never use a simple and crude method to bribe him. ” He Zhichu reasoned calmly. “Don’t waste your time on this.”
“I’m not wasting my time. The prosecutor has shown that he’s being unfair, so why should I tolerate it?” Gu Nianzhi paced around the room in frustration.
She had prepared so much information for so long, but suddenly realized that it was impossible for her to even go to court. What was the point of this lawsuit then?
Gu Nianzhi was indignant. “No, I want to question the prosecutor immediately and ask what’s going on.”
“You can just object to the publicly announced lineup of Prosecution Lawyers. ” He Zhichu taught her how to appeal to the prosecutor’s office through the proper channels, “You must always remember that your status is special. You must follow proper procedures and not give the other party a chance to take advantage of you.”
Gu Nianzhi took a deep breath. “I understand. Thank you for your advice, Professor He.”
After hanging up the phone, Gu Nianzhi began to study the formal interrogation procedure.
The prosecutor’s Office had publicly announced the prosecution’s lawyer, which meant that it was fair and just.
In theory, if the plaintiff objected, the prosecutor’s office wouldn’t be able to make its own decision. They would have to consider the plaintiff’s request and provide reasons for doing so.
The defendant had no right to choose the prosecution’s lawyer.
They could only choose their own lawyer and the members of the jury.
Gu Nianzhi was the plaintiff’s lawyer, so she could represent the plaintiff in questioning the prosecutor’s office and oppose the prosecutor’s selection of the prosecution’s lawyer lineup.
As she wrote the inquiry letter, cold sweat broke out on her back.
Unexpectedly, Cai Shengnan had gone off the rails and had no intention of arguing with her in court at all. She had directly set her up by preventing her from appearing in court.
If she wasn’t able to appear in court, she would definitely lose to Cai Shengnan.
Fortunately, He Zhichu had gone to the Prosecutor’s Office’s website in advance to take a look. Otherwise, she would have been so trapped that she would have had nowhere to cry.
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips tightly and typed quickly. She quickly wrote a 500-word inquiry letter that expressed her opposition to the prosecutor’s selection of the prosecution’s lawyers and demanded that they be replaced.
She sent the inquiry by email and asked for a reply, so that the other party couldn’t deny it.
Not long after she sent the email, Xie Shenxing called someone over to invite her down for dinner.
Huo Shaoheng was also there, and he seemed to be in a good mood.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t say anything about the prosecution lawyers. She quietly ate and joked with them as she calmly waited for the response from the prosecutor’s office.