The conference room on the top floor of the Newcastle Hotel.
Lu Ming's side consisted of him, three disciples, and Bi Xiaoting.
Opposite, there was a row of people sitting.
Zheng Zhongshi was a short and stout man with little education. He had a dark face and a fierce aura. After all, the stable was a small martial world for him. When training horses, one had to be ruthless. This was true for the horses as well as for his apprentices. He would beat and scold them. This was the culture of the stable. In the past, it was even normal to be on guard against rival stables drugging one's horses.
His representative lawyer has been replaced by a sixth-grade lawyer named Manila, a little old man in his fifties with short gray-brown hair, a hooked nose, and hawk-like eyes. Like Silva, he is from the law firm of Johnson, Smith & Stewart and has a row of lower-level lawyers as assistants.
Lu Ming has dealt with several big lawyers from Reid and Johnson, Smith & Stewart, but this is the first time he has met Manila. He had previously dealt with the two law firms on economic cases. Manila is an outstanding criminal defense lawyer, and Lu Ming has also heard of his name.
At this time, Zheng Zhongshi's eyelids kept twitching as he looked at the settlement agreement handed over by the tomboy on the other side.
The settlement agreement mainly consists of three items. The first item is to compensate Officer Bi Xiaoting for various losses and economic compensation caused by mental trauma, amounting to 300,000 yuan; the second item is to compensate Miss Jennifer for the harm caused to Miss Jennifer due to the abuse of her racehorses, amounting to 100,000 yuan; the third item is to apologize in the newspaper, admit that he is not a competent horse trainer, and transfer the stable to the person designated by Miss Jennifer.
"Stable, who do you want me to transfer it to?" Zheng Zhongshi gritted his teeth and stared at Lu Ming.
Lu Ming didn't say anything, but looked through a pile of documents on the table. It seemed that he was not just pretending, but was really busy dealing with some matters.
This negotiation seemed unimportant to him, he just had to show up.
"Mr. Zheng Zhongshi, you must have misunderstood us. We have not reached any agreement with any trainer, and we have never had any private communication. We will respect Ms. Jennifer's opinion and let her choose your successor. This is also part of your apology to Ms. Jennifer."
The person who spoke was Tong Xiao'e. She was very thoughtful and quickly guessed what Zheng Zhongshi was thinking.
He speaks slowly and gently, but is firm in his own way.
When Zheng Zhongshi saw the agreement, his first thought was that some damn enemy had colluded with the other side to kill him.
After hearing what Tong Xiao'e said, he snorted and didn't quite believe it.
Manila looked at the copy of the agreement and also frowned. "If the case goes to court, my client may not be convicted of kidnapping, so the compensation to Ms. Bi will be around 10,000 yuan, saving everyone's time and the trouble of going to court. We can discuss the amount here. At least, there is room for discussion, but what about Miss Jennifer? Even if her racehorse has any liability that needs to be compensated, isn't it covered by Jin Taiping Insurance Company? The third item is even more nonsense."
Tie Xiaojia immediately pushed a document over and said, "This is a copy of the proposal that my master will submit to the Beiguan Council. You should have investigated it very clearly. My master is one of the five municipal council members in Beiguan and has a significant influence in the council. It is easy for a proposal like this that does not involve political factions to be passed by the Beiguan Council."
Manila picked it up and looked at it, then shook his head.
This is a proposal to discuss the crime of animal cruelty.
Today, legislation on animal cruelty is beginning to take shape in some parts of the empire.
There is already a satellite town in Donghai that has enacted legislation on this.
Seeing Manila shaking his head, Tie Xiaojia said, "Although the new law does not apply to the past, there are exceptions that apply. Also, I think you need to take a look at this."
Push a few pages of paper over.
When Manila saw this, his brows immediately frowned and he looked at Zheng Zhongshi beside him.
However, it was a copy of the testimony of a groom in Zheng Zhongshi's stable. In the testimony, the groom confessed that there was an unspoken rule in Zheng Zhongshi's stable, that is, for horses that were difficult to run, he would instruct the grooms to deliberately manipulate their diet and other aspects so that they would be eliminated as soon as possible, and he would even use a chronic poison to make them become weak quickly.
Because each stable has a maximum of eighty vacancies, there are horse owners who only pay according to the contract, and their racehorses are misjudged by Zheng Zhongshi and cannot run well. This not only affects the stable's success rate, but also seriously affects its income.
In this way, horses that are difficult to run out and quickly promoted to the second class can be eliminated as soon as possible, so that the overall quality of racehorses in Zheng Zhongshi's stable remains high.
Tie Xiaojia snorted, "I think that after receiving this testimony, Jin Taiping Insurance Company will no longer be obliged to bear any compensation liability for him." He added, "Even if your client is not convicted of animal abuse, you have already lost in public opinion. We will unite all the horse owners who have suffered losses in the past and file a class action lawsuit. These racehorses are the private property of the horse owners. Add them together, and the value should be very huge. I think your client is not only guilty of property damage, but also aggravated vandalism!"
"Originally, this testimony only involved Miss Jennifer's case. We could have reached a settlement agreement with you regarding Ms. Bi's case first, and then discussed this new case..."
Manila's face changed. Yes, if the other party handled it this way, it would not be against the rules, but he and his client would fall into this huge trap. They would barely be able to reduce the compensation for Bi Xiaoting's case to a barely acceptable level. Then, the other party would suddenly throw out this case again. By then, they would be completely powerless to resist.
Tie Xiaojia continued, "So, Manila lawyer, my master, has the greatest goodwill and sincerity towards you and your client, and hopes to resolve your client's troubles as soon as possible."
Manila was silent. From a certain perspective, what the little girl said was right. If she were to handle these two cases herself, she would definitely deal with them one by one and leave the other party without any chance of fighting back.
That is, Lu Qianxing's attitude is too arrogant. He simply disdains to talk to himself and his clients. Although, he can feel that his disciples have received his instructions, and what to say and what to do step by step are all arranged in an orderly manner.
"Manila lawyer, I think you need some time to have a careful communication with your client!" Tie Xiaojia stood up. "There is a very quiet room next to me. I will take you and your team there."
Lu Ming was signing at this time, he looked up and smiled: "Manila lawyer, I'm sorry that there is a problem with a company under my name. In fact, I have some troubles with evidence skills and I have been wanting to ask you for advice. You are an expert in this field. When this case is over, can we sit down and talk when we have time?"
"Okay, I hope there's a chance!" Manila nodded to him. She didn't know why, but even though the other party didn't even lift his butt, she felt more comfortable.
Maybe human psychology is just weird. The other person originally treated you as nothing, but suddenly pays attention to you. Even though you know that the other person is just being polite, you still feel that you are finally respected
Of course, the premise is that this person has considerable weight in himself.