What's wrong with this lawyer?!

In such an atmosphere, the Jingzhou Intermediate People's Court issued an announcement to live broadcast the court trial!

A week quickly passed by, and on Monday morning, Old Tang, carrying his briefcase, arrived at the Jingzhou Intermediate Court once again. Unexpectedly, there were particularly many people present to observe the proceedings that day.

"Lawyer Tang is here? Please go ahead, we're all here to observe. You wouldn't know, those who have slightly more savings, bank salespeople call you ten times a day just trying to get you to buy financial products."

"Right, my parents had the same experience. It wasn't just phone calls; salespeople even came to our house to pitch, talking about how much return one product would give, how much another would give. In the end, my parents bought in and lost a terrible amount of money. When we went to the bank to ask, that salesperson had already left..."

"If we were interested in buying financial products, would they need to be on about it every day?"

Many people were complaining there, having come specifically to observe, and were keen to see what the situation was like inside.

Old Tang walked in, greeting people along the way. This matter had become such a big issue that he had no tasks left; he had initially only planned to earn some money, and now it had turned into this.

The door to the civil courtroom hadn't opened yet, so Old Tang decided to wait by the door, when a man quickly approached.

"Are you Lawyer Tang? Hello, hello, I'm Ding Feng from Dafeng Law Firm. I've long admired your reputation." Director Ding said with a smile on his face as he looked at Tang Fangjing.

Dafeng Law Firm. Old Tang was not fond of this firm, and what's more, the two of them were supposed to be opponents at the moment.

So he just casually replied, "It's Director Ding, I've heard a lot about you."

Though he said he'd heard a lot about him, his face might as well have had the words "I don't know you at all" written on it.

Director Ding did not mind and simply said, "Lawyer Tang, you shouldn't have taken this case. Financial cases can't be handled recklessly like this, you know. However, if you are interested, you could actually come over to Dafeng.

"Our firm has a specialized financial lawyer training system."

With an air of seniority, Old Tang felt somewhat helpless upon hearing this, even though he now counted as a prominent lawyer and had a particularly large reputation online.

But in the legal industry, there were still people who felt he was too young, a mere junior.

Shaking his head, he said, "Director Ding, let's not talk here. We can get in touch in private. I'm afraid of being reported to the bar association, which wouldn't look good, would it?"

Just then, the door to the civil courtroom opened, and Old Tang went straight in, sat down at the plaintiff's seat, and began to organize his materials by himself.

Director Ding shook his head too and said to his assistant beside him, "Let's go. This Lawyer Tang has not yet been through the mill of society."

The judge arrived, the court clerk announced all rise, and finally, the case that had attracted much attention began.

The proceedings started with the usual formalities: confirming the identities of the parties involved, checking for any applications for recusal, reviewing court discipline, and so on.

After these steps, the court investigation began, and it was the plaintiff's turn to make a statement.

It was essentially the reading of the complaint; that's why many people say the courtroom feels like a formality. Indeed, this impression isn't wrong; as the complaint is something that both the defendant and the judge have likely read countless times before the trial.

But according to procedure, you still need to read it out loud; it's called stating the facts and grounds.

Old Tang finished reading, and now an assistant of Director Ding began to read the written statement of defense.

Finally, the evidence examination began.

"Evidence one, the fund contract signed between our client Ms. Wu and Guangming Bank, proves the existence of a fund sales relationship between our client and Guangming Bank."

Old Tang hadn't sued Guangming Bank on the grounds of entrusted financial management, but rather for breach of contract.

The reason was that Guangming Bank was only acting as a distributor.

Director Ding immediately contested, "No objection to the legality and objectivity of the evidence, however, there is an objection to its relevance. Guangming Bank acted only as the distributor for Fengsheng No. 2 Stock Type Securities Investment Fund."

"The contract parties should be the plaintiff and the fund manager, thus the defendant is not the appropriate party."

Old Tang continued with the evidence presentation: "Evidence two, through the public promotion of the bank's financial products, it has been established that the financial products in question should be considered high-risk."

"Evidence three, our client had undergone a risk assessment twenty days prior to the purchase of the fund in question, because she was buying another financial product. The assessment showed our client to be a conservative investor."

"Suitable for investing in steady or cautious investment products, and unsuitable for purchasing high-risk financial products like the fund in question."

Director Ding retorted again, "No objection to the legality and objectivity of the evidence, but there is an objection to its relevance. The plaintiff had undergone a risk assessment before purchasing the fund in question, and according to Guangming Bank's risk assessment questionnaire, she should be classified as a balanced investor."

"Which is consistent with the risk rating of the fund in question."

Old Tang presented several more pieces of evidence, and then it was Director Ding's turn to present evidence.

"Evidence one, risk disclosure: before signing the fund contract, Guangming Bank provided the plaintiff with risk disclosure documents, which the plaintiff signed."

"Evidence two, the result of the plaintiff's customer rating before purchasing the fund, proving that the plaintiff was already a balanced investor..."

"Evidence three, when purchasing the fund in question, the plaintiff was forty-six years old and had many years of financial management experience, hence she should be considered to have the capacity to identify risks."

Old Tang immediately started to challenge the evidence: "The relevance and objectivity of evidence one are not acknowledged. That risk disclosure is merely a standard form and did not list in detail the maximum risk of the fund and the actual method of calculating returns, thus failing to fulfill the duties of suitability and disclosure."

"Evidence two, the defendant has only provided a one-sided customer rating result, without the specific risk assessment for our client, nor has the defendant provided the specific criteria for the risk results of being conservative and balanced."