What's wrong with this lawyer?!

Old Han said upon hearing the words, "Because he is Tang Fangjing, with Tang Fangjing's ability, losing once or twice may be a mistake, but there's absolutely no way he could lose three times in a row!"

Old Han quite detested Tang Fangjing, something that was common knowledge in Jingzhou, but likewise, he was acutely aware of how strong Tang Fangjing's professional skills were.

Frankly speaking, two Han Chenglis wouldn't be a problem for him.

Such a lawyer, losing three times in a row in the same case, there must be something fishy going on.

It's just that Old Han didn't know where the problem on the other side lay...

In such an atmosphere, Old Tang once again arrived at the Dayuan District People's Court in Xiping City.

He filed a lawsuit to confirm the invalidity of the subcontract!

This is the tedious part of the legal process; to affirm that a contract is invalid, you first need to know about the contract, otherwise, you wouldn't even be able to initiate a case.

At this point, it was all about grinding it out; he'd lost the previous three cases, and without appealing, there wouldn't be a second trial, but Old Tang was certain that San He Company would definitely see the second trials through.

A few days later, inside San He Company, the boss Xia Mingde was there cursing someone out.

"What kind of shoddy company is that in The Capital, giving them the task of handling our payroll, and they turned around and sold us out in Qinglv County, right!"

The employees beside said nothing; it was clear they were not interested in taking responsibility, just in making money.

The issue here was serious; once one person was established to be in a labor relationship, it meant that others could do the same. Once stuck on, it's shit either way.

This was also one of the reasons why Old Tang wanted to make this whole case a teaching case; coming to Hanxi Province, one must do something consequential.

"Once this contract term is over, we'll switch companies. If it comes to it, we'll set up a specialized company just for payroll!" Xia Mingde said cooly.

Such a move was to avoid legal risks; otherwise, there would be no need to get the payroll company involved in The Capital.

Running their own company would offer better control; if a lawsuit arose, they could play the timing and simply dissolve the company. After the dissolution, such legal relations would be even harder to confirm.

"Alright, we have a good idea of what Tang Fangjing is going to do; let's talk about how to deal with this!" Xia Mingde spoke again.

They must have professional labor legal affairs in these types of companies; these legal affairs staff are former professional lawyers in labor disputes.

If Old Tang's side felt clear about it, they could see the issue as well.

It was clear that the other side was targeting their San He Company, with Fengyu Company there being evidently involved in management actions, from time tracking to weekly meetings, and demanding punctuality for online work; clear signs of definitive management.

Now that the payroll distribution had been deemed as outsourcing and the contract once confirmed invalid, their side's defenses would be untenable, cementing a formal labor relationship.

The department head of legal affairs furrowed his brow in thought for a long time, finally saying, "President Xia, currently there are two methods, the first is to tough it out, which is risky, but we might find an opportunity."

"At present, they don't have much evidence of Fengyu Company's management, and if they sue our company, we are certainly not going to provide those time-tracking records."

"There's some leeway here. If the platform can also apply pressure, our chances of winning will be greater, but the other party is Tang Fangjing, and the risk is significant..."

The name Tang Fangjing wasn't made up—it was earned through hard-fought battles!

And the opponent had ways of responding too, like listing Fengyu Company as a third party to join in the litigation. According to relevant laws, if they have evidence of managerial actions on their end, the company's failure to produce such evidence would result in the burden of failing to furnish proof.

In the ensuing legal tangle, it's uncertain how the court would rule. If a labor relationship is confirmed, that would be troublesome.

Xia Mingde, frowning deeply, said, "Impossible, don't even think about getting help from the platform. To them, if we're not doing a good job, they can replace us at any time."

It was only because of certain connections that San He Company had been able to become the courier business contractor for Hanxi Province, but talking to the platform would be futile as they hardly acknowledged him.

On the contrary, with just one word from the platform, companies like his would have to run themselves ragged.

"And the second method?" Explore stories on empire

The legal affairs manager adjusted his glasses, "The second method is, before the hearing for the contract's invalidity starts, to have Fengyu Company sort out the issue on their own."

"They created the trouble, so there's no reason we should be worried. After all, their whole game is just about money; give them enough, and the problem naturally gets resolved."

Xia Mingde thought it through carefully, that's right, he seemed to have gotten sidetracked. Noticing that Tang Fangjing kept filing lawsuits, he had been intent on taking him head-on.

But this wasn't their problem to begin with; whoever caused the hassle should solve it.

In the eyes of the platform, San He Company was a dog, and in the eyes of San He Company, wasn't the subcontractor Fengyu Company beneath them also a dog?

"Fine, let's do that; I'll make the call," he said.

Moving to one side, Xia Mingde's assistant had already found Fengyu Company boss Zheng Xingfa's contact details and dialed the number.

"President Xia, it's through"

Xia Mingde took the phone and began, "Hello, is this President Zheng? This is Xia Mingde."

In Qinglv County, inside the office of Fengyu Company's boss Zheng Xingfa, who was joking around with his secretary, the phone rang. He saw that it was a call from the boss of San He Company and quickly answered.