New Gods of North America

In the following days,

Wayne was mostly busy finding a defense lawyer and witnesses.

The house prices in Georgeburg were relatively clear, and the compensation amount could be roughly estimated. It's normal to have some variation, but the price of townhouses shouldn't suddenly deviate by a large margin.

The local exorcism department had made it clear that they would not intervene in this matter, after all, they didn't actually get involved at the time. The police station would send someone to testify, but they would also be "telling the truth"—which was enough for Wayne.

Speaking of the lawsuit itself, even if the detective agency lost, the amount of compensation required would be small and insignificant.

However, the detective agency didn't want to be associated with the reputation of "threatening ordinary citizens".

According to the news Seth gathered from the "people in charge" he "knew" before, some reports were actually "ready to go".

One of the reports Wayne got his hands on seemed quite sensational, titled "Behind the Praised Reputation, the True Face of Wayne National Detective Agency".

It not only planned to use this lawsuit to make a fuss, but also implied that some previous news reports were actually the result of reporters being bought off or coerced.

Well,

From a realistic point of view, "outsiders" in the American Federation are more vulnerable to being bullied in this regard.

The reports responsible for "stoking the fire" had already begun to appear in newspapers.

Wayne saw one today. At this time, the wording was still relatively implicit, using a relatively "rational", "neutral", and "objective" tone.

For example, it first listed some of the detective agency's previously reported deeds, and then left a question, "Is this lawsuit a misunderstanding, or is it finally the tip of the iceberg that people are paying attention to?"

A trivial matter trending on social media,

Does anyone really think no one can see that someone is buying traffic?

After becoming a party to the lawsuit, many things had to be temporarily avoided.

For example, trying to change the views of certain reporters or jury members through one's own influence would be a high-risk operation for the detective agency at this time. Success might eliminate some negative effects, but failure would mean two big labels: obstructing "freedom of the press" and "judicial fairness".

"Outsiders" can't easily do this.

Wayne remembered Ian Fisk once asking about the female reporter named Freddy Lounds. When visiting Miss Ophelia, he specifically inquired about the follow-up.

Miss Ophelia said that the female reporter seemed to have accepted the Fisk family's employment, but the specific whereabouts still needed to be inquired about.

Wayne guessed that the other party might have changed her address, so he didn't directly write to her again, but he still asked Miss Ophelia to find out her current contact information.

He would let the local reporters see what a "professional" really is.

The detective agency finally chose the novice lawyer recommended by the "Pointy Hat Society" brotherhood as their defense lawyer.

The "big lawyer" who had a deep cooperative relationship with the Fisk family was not someone Miss Ophelia could easily assign. Of course, it would be okay if Miss Ophelia used her own "favor" to ask, but that would seem a bit too much trouble.

Judging from Cohen Pharmaceuticals' current style, something else might happen later, so it's better to save it for a rainy day.

Wayne even made a trip to the landlord. He originally wanted to pay the rent according to the market price, so as not to be accused of forcibly occupying other people's property.

The landlord still declined, and said that Ian Fisk and Miss Ophelia had specifically visited him after hearing about this matter, which made him feel very honored, and that little money was a trivial matter.

Well, Southerners still have their stubborn but lovely side.

At least the acquaintances in Blackstone Town would probably not refuse money because of this kind of thing. This is of course related to the amount itself, but it is more likely that the underlying concepts are different.

After roughly finishing these things,

People from Cohen Pharmaceuticals came to the door again soon.

This time, it wasn't the "big lawyer" from last time, but a guy he didn't recognize and hadn't heard of.

Compared to the last time, the contract did add the additional terms Wayne had proposed,

But it was added in reverse:

The detective agency "is obliged to provide sufficient manpower to ensure that it can fulfill basic security needs. The number of security teams that can be dispatched at the same time shall not be less than five, and the number of people in each team shall not be less than six. If there is a breach of contract or an accident, the client has the right to deduct the corresponding amount from the total contract amount".

"Security personnel are obliged to obey and cooperate with the command of the protected target, and shall not interfere with the protected target's decision-making autonomy for any reason".

Just... great...

Wayne politely persuaded the other party to go back, saying that he needed to consider the contract for a while.

Close to the weekend, the college sent Wayne a letter,

The content was mainly related to courses and dormitories.

Students at the college who had been affected by the "food poisoning" and "arson" incidents—the culprit was naturally Mrs. Lalaurie—should return to class as soon as possible if their bodies had initially recovered.

If they really couldn't keep up with the current courses, they could retake them in the next academic year, and the college would waive the retake fee once. Students who were about to graduate this academic year could also choose whether to accept the work-study opportunities provided by the college, which would provide a certain degree of care.

As for the students who had lived in Wayne's dormitory before, because the dormitory had been burned down, the dormitories would be reassigned. As compensation, the college would waive the corresponding students' accommodation fees for the next academic year, or allow students to apply for off-campus accommodation in advance.

Wayne chose to apply for off-campus accommodation, but he planned to postpone the time to return to class until after the trial.

The local courts these days are still relatively efficient. The trial was on the following Wednesday.

The thing about "how difficult it is to deal with transcendents of the School of Life" is not allowed to be said publicly, so the detective agency's defense focused on "prior preventive measures" and "the reasonableness of the compensation amount".

The members of the jury initially seemed to be prejudiced against the matter of "civil organizations coercing good citizens", but fortunately, Wayne was a student studying at the "college", and the matter sounded reasonable.

So, when the court adjourned to wait for the jury to come to a result, the situation seemed to be more favorable to the detective agency.

As a result, the other party's lawyer then came up with a sly move,

Choosing to withdraw the lawsuit.

The mainstream legal opinion on "coercive behavior" these days is to "invalidate it". For example, if there is forced buying and selling, the contract will be ruled invalid. The starting point is to protect the rights and interests of the weak.

The detective agency did not additionally require the other party to pay money. On the contrary, it was the payer, and there was no clear excessive behavior. It was not within the scope of public prosecution, and the case ended quickly.

Even the novice lawyer who came to help failed to successfully accumulate the number of wins...

And the other party's demands did not obviously exceed a certain amount. The reports in the newspapers were not directly written by the other party, and did not meet the conditions for a counterclaim for "defamation".

So things became inconclusive, even more disgusting than a clear "acquittal".

The next day, when Wayne looked at the newspaper, sure enough, someone was showing off their presence again.

"'Wayne Detective Agency's Coercion of Citizens Case' Finally Withdrawn, But Is This Really Reasonable?"

The implication was nothing more than implying that the other party withdrew the lawsuit, possibly due to the detective agency's secret coercion.

Wayne didn't know what others thought,

However, the attitude of the gentleman who originally took the initiative to come to Wayne to discuss the steam train line security contract obviously changed.

He seemed to have seen the newspaper on the way over, and felt that the matter that had already been decided had therefore become "maybe some contract terms still need to be considered".