America 1982

Office of Robert Morley, Partner, Hale \u0026 Dole White Shoe LLP, Boston, Massachusetts.

Robert, a lawyer hired by Lotus Company with a high salary, sat in a straight suit. He turned his seat so that he could face the floor-to-ceiling windows and admire the scenery, and then turned back to his desk. He picked up the folder that had been prepared on the desk and threw it directly to the unprepossessing man sitting opposite him with an expression on his face. The calm middle-aged man: "Reynard, this is the permission letter issued by the court to collect evidence in this case."

The middle-aged man rubbed the stubble on his chin, took the document without even looking at it, and put it directly into the briefcase he carried with him.

He didn't need to carefully read what was written on those documents. He only needed to hear clearly what Robert, the partner and financial backer opposite, told him to do.

As for the documents he just threw, they were only used to throw them in the face of the police or the other party when they were questioned or interrogated during his own investigation and evidence collection.

"Tommy Hawke, majoring in computer science at Stanford University. The simple information I received before is that the guy is from Warwick, Rhode Island, which is very close to here. Find out who his family is and how he can study in college. Opening a company means that his father should also be a businessman. Check whether his father's business involves tax evasion and whether there are previous commercial crime records. Visit the neighborhood and find out whether his ancestors were black people. , in short, I need all the information to make the judge and jury hate Actor Company enough." Robert slowly picked up the coffee and looked at Leonard opposite:

"And as far as I know, there are three students in the Actor company. Tommy Hawke is the most important one, but the other two cannot be ignored. How many times do the three of them masturbate every night should be made clear. .”

Leonard is a veteran. He and his companions run a private detective firm in Boston, specializing in helping lawyers with investigation and evidence collection. They have been working together for three years, and the two parties have a perfect understanding.

In the United States, the truth of the case is not the focus of the courts.

What the court is most concerned about is the evidence collected by both the plaintiff and the defendant. To put it simply, whichever party collects enough evidence will have a better chance of winning. What’s more terrible is that American courts will not take the initiative to investigate and collect evidence. They will completely lie down. Otherwise, evidence must be presented to it by both parties before it will take a look at it. This is why many poor plaintiffs end up losing their cases and rich defendants get away with it.

If you don’t have the money to hire someone to help with investigation and evidence collection, it’s best not to initiate any lawsuit other than public prosecution in the United States.

The task of helping both parties investigate and collect evidence naturally falls on lawyers with the same background as the judge. According to U.S. regulations, lawyers are not officials or consultants of the U.S. government or U.S. citizens. They are officials of the court.

In other words, with a permission letter issued by the court, the lawyer can conduct an extremely wide range of evidence collection work in the name of the court from individuals, institutions and even opponents. The most important thing is that unless there are special circumstances and the issue has nothing to do with the case from beginning to end. , the other party cannot refuse, otherwise the court will cause trouble for the refuser, and the lawyer can hire a professional investigation agency to help him do this kind of work with the permission letter issued by the court.

The permission letter that was originally issued to only one person, and the work that was only allowed to be carried out by him, was directly subdivided into a group of people holding copies of the permission letter, like a group of vultures smelling the smell of carrion.

"Understood. My best detectives have flown to San Jose, California in advance. I'm going to fax them the permission slip. I will go to Warwick first to dig out that guy's family background." Reina De stood up, bowed slightly to Robert, then turned and walked out of the office.

Robert dialed Jim Manz's phone: "Jim? The court has allowed both parties to start evidence collection and disclosure. Is there anything else you need me to know?"

"Fifteen amicus curiae, all of whom have the status of legislators or public officials, and fifteen documents submitted to the court are being written." Jim said on the phone: "The president of Xerox, in view of his personal friendship with me, is considering We also submitted an amicus brief to the court to give our views on the chaos in the industry as a well-known company in the industry.”

Robert nodded: "Very good, my investigators have rushed to San Jose, California. I hope not to scare those poor children and the unknown lawyers they hired."

"You're just too soft-hearted, Robert. At this time, you have to do your best... F*ck?" Jim was talking to Robert on the phone with a vulgar smile, but suddenly he froze on the other side of the phone and cursed softly.

Robert asked curiously: "What happened? Jim?"

"When did Davis Polk become a fucking unknown lawyer, Robert!" Jim cursed in a low voice: "You'd better come over here within ten minutes! Stand by my side! I don't want it to be because of myself If you say something wrong, the other party will overturn it! Damn it!"

Robert asked: "What happened?"

"Why don't you let me explain to him?" A female voice sounded faintly on the other side of the phone, and Jim then said: "Robert, I'm turning on the speakerphone."

Soon, the female voice on the other side of the phone smiled and said to the completely confused Robert: "Hello, attorney Robert Morley, I am the person in charge of the legal affairs of this litigation of Actor Company, Davis Polk Law Firm Delia Case, partner of the firm, the letter was sent too slowly, so I chose to come to Boston in person to obtain the investigation and evidence collection permit from the court, and by the way, I made some normal inquiries related to the case to some of the people involved in the Lotus company."

"I..." Robert wanted to yell, reminding Jim not to talk nonsense before he arrived. He had the right to wait for his lawyer to arrive.

But before he could finish speaking, Delia Keys hung up the phone.

"F*ck!" Robert didn't care to think about why the old white-shoe law firm in New York would take a contract from a small company in California. He cursed and quickly called back. Soon the call was connected again. Jim answered with a calm voice. But Robert heard the anger hidden in that voice: "I am listening to you under the gentle gaze of Attorney Case."

Robert turned on the speakerphone, packed his briefcase, and said loudly: "You have the right to wait for the lawyer to arrive before being questioned. I will rush over right away."

"If you can't make it in ten minutes, I guarantee that it will be the most damaging ten minutes in your life." After Jim hung up the phone, he looked at the white-haired female lawyer who was sitting opposite and was relaxing, and said with a smile: "Kay Ms. Si, how could I be worthy enough to enjoy your personal inquiry?"

"I noticed you..." Delia said with a smile, about to ask a question.

"Give me a minute." Jim suddenly stood up, interrupted Delia's question, and walked quickly outside the office. He first glanced at the hall, and then rushed into Mickey's office. Sure enough, there were two people sitting inside. A lawyer in a suit and tie was talking to Mitch Kapoor. Jim shouted: "Mitch! Don't say anything! Wait for the lawyer to arrive!"

Then he ran around the company like a madman, shouting loudly: "Shut the fuck up! Wait for the company's lawyers to arrive! You have the right to delay questioning! If you let me know that someone is talking nonsense!" I vow to show him how the word life is hard can be embodied!”

"You reacted very quickly." Delia sighed with pity, looked at Jim who was running around outside and walked in again and said: "But I will record everything you just said. You are trying to incite the person being examined to refuse to cooperate. Forensic investigation.”

"It doesn't matter. You can report to the court that I treat evidence collection negatively, and it's nothing more than a fine." Jim sat back at his desk and showed a relieved smile: "This is the lawyer of Actor Company, huh? Like to give people a little scare as a meeting gift? By the way? By the way, beauty, your hair is really beautiful, what would you like to drink?”

Fortunately, he reacted quickly. When his secretary told him that the lawyer named Delia was visiting him alone, Jim really thought that there was only one person on the other side. But when she revealed her identity, Jim immediately realized that something was wrong, and that was this white lady. Fa Niu is the plenipotentiary lawyer in charge of the case of Actor Company. She didn't go to visit Mitch Kapoor first, but came to see her directly?

He is only the vice president in the company, and Lotus has four vice presidents, which means that he cannot enjoy unique treatment, unless this woman deliberately set a trap.

So Jim chose to run out, and sure enough, this woman brought enough people, she just wanted to entangle herself, and then use other lawyers to easily get those nerdy words out.

Those nerds have no emotional intelligence and do not know how to consider their sentences. You know, when you think you have said something that feels completely okay, you may find countless reasons to doubt it in the eyes of lawyers who are always ready to help you find fault.

"I guess before the lawyer arrives, I'm afraid I can only chat with you about the weather or recommended attractions in Boston or something like that?" Delia looked at Jim, her face didn't seem to be full of disappointment because of Jim's quick reaction.

"Before the lawyer arrives, I can't even talk to you about the weather. I happen to have a few very, very important documents that I need to review urgently, so... Ms. Delia Keys, wait for me for a moment. ." Jim showed a bright smile to Delia, then opened the files on the table and looked through them carefully.

Delia Keyes' eyes were full of smiles: "The National Review article was very well written. There should be many politicians who are very interested in the word patent recently."

"Thank you." Jim responded simply.

There was an awkward silence in the office. Two or three minutes later, Lotus founder and CEO Mickey Kapur quickly walked into Jim's office and broke the silence.

Jim looked at his boss: "Is the lawyer here, Mickey?"

"My friends at Soft Art Company called and inquired. The legal team from Davis Polk Law Firm took the permission letter issued by the court and went to Soft Art Company to request some employees to cooperate in the inquiry." Mitch Kapoor was somewhat He looked at Jim nervously: "What happened? Jim, aren't we the party filing the accusation?"

Jim Manz looked at Delia, who smiled elegantly at him: "I heard that Mr. Mitch Kapoor has a good relationship with some engineers from the Soft Arts Company who developed the world's first spreadsheet software, VisiCalc. , and there are some rumors from the outside, so I came to find out more and see if it can be helpful to this case. Don’t worry, it’s just a routine inquiry.”

Soft Arts developed the world's first spreadsheet software, VisiCalc, for Apple systems. It is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts. When the Lotus 1-2-3 software was launched, there was news in the industry that Mickey Kapur left Soft Arts. I received an inside message that Soft Arts was planning to try to develop an MS-DOS version of VisiCalc. However, the top management was divided into two groups trying to convince each other. Mickey took advantage of the internal friction at Soft Arts and quickly completed the project with Jonathan in the garage. The first version of Lotus1-2-3.

"I have never asked my friends to leak secrets. It's just that my classmate works in Soft Art. We are good friends and often exchange computer technology." I heard that Delia actually went to Soft Art to find out whether she had plagiarized from Soft Art. Mickey looked at Delia angrily and explained: "I don't bother stealing other people's ideas!"

"No~! Mickey, calm down, she's irritating you, don't speak, wait for the lawyer to come." Jim stood up, tried to persuade Mickey, whose face was turning red, and said.

After comforting Mitch and sending him out of his office, Jim looked at Delia: "It was really fast, the troops were divided into two groups, and the topic was chosen very cleverly. It successfully angered my boss."

"Just a small scare as a meeting gift will make Actor Company look too stingy." Delia said to Jim with a smile.

"F*ck..." Jim threw the file back on the table, looked down at his hands, and cursed softly: "It depends on the situation, and another fight will last for at least three years."

"My opinion is exactly the opposite of yours, Jim Manz. I think it may not take too long to end this." Delia said to Jim in a positive tone.

The second update is nearly 4,000 words~~ Then a reader group was created, which can be seen in the introduction or at the end of each chapter. Everyone is welcome to join the group to visit wild authors.