24 Making it Up 1 (1/2)
Jason and Isabella were stunned. Had this ordinary looking young man angered them on purpose just to prove a point? It was either that his level of foresight had reached inconceivable levels, or his ability to learn and adapt on the fly was. Either way, both were outstanding qualities for lawyer.
Not only did Ci-ci have to goad them, he also had to understand how they'd respond. And, to understand how they'd respond, he'd have to know that they had already looked into him. Even further, he then had to formulate the perfect response.
There was no doubt that had this been a mock debate, they would have lost.
Ci-ci leisurely walked to the head of the table and plopped down. His eyes involuntarily shone when he looked at the beauty that was Isabella, but it didn't cross the lines of respect, only simple appreciation. As far as Ci-ci was concerned, if a beautiful woman got offended because he appreciated her looks for half a second too long, he'd simply retort that she was too beautiful.
Luckily, Ci-ci had seen plenty of women as and even more beautiful than Isabella, so he maintained a calm and level head. It wouldn't affect his ability to work.
After Jason and Isabella recollected them, Ci-ci had all but reclined and put his feet up on the table. But, he was inwardly shaking his head. 'Lawyers shouldn't be this rattled from something so minor. Even though they have the excuse that they're young, they should have already faced trials of their own. It's clear that their opponents till now have been handpicked by the firm to boost their confidence slowly.'
Of the two, Isabella was the first to calm herself, and also the first to respond.
”I commend you for using the easiest and most straight forward way to gain our respect, this saves us a lot of time. But, I still disagree with your points. My methods are perfectly legal.”
Ci-ci lightly tapped on the table, before nodding. ”Let's go over them, then. Shall we?
”The first idea you brought up involved slight of hand tricks with patents, shifting their ownership or leaking them.
”For one, either one of these methods violate 'In Bad Faith' laws. And before you mention how difficult it is to win a cased based on bad faith laws, I'm well aware of how difficult it is to prove intent in the court of law. However, something so blatant as creating a branch company mere weeks before an official merger would need the worst lawyer imaginable to screw up.”
”Bad faith laws?” Jason frowned. ”All of the bad faith laws case studies we've learned of all involve civil cases dealing with Insurance companies. I've never seen a case where a bad faith law is implemented between two companies.”
Ci-ci sighed. ”That's because your ideas are far too stupid to even try. No veteran lawyer would ever suggest what two have.”
Before Isabella and Jason could get angry again, Ci-ci continued. ”Bad faith between two companies almost never happen precisely because of how difficult they are to prove. Bad faith cases are often last-ditch attempts by poor people who've gotten screwed over by their insurance companies.
”The reason why the win percentage on those civil cases is so low is because any true company has a million different fail safes to deny bad faith.”
”If that's the case, then what's the problem with us using it?” Isabella frowned.
”Like I said, because your method is too crude. If an insurance company wants to avoid paying out, there are a million tactics they could use. They could dig up your history, they could reference past cases, they could lengthen the trial to the point where a normal individual from a normal family would no longer be able to keep up with the costs.
”However, do you see the commonality between these techniques? They only work against people without money and time. If a normal person sues a company for bad faith, whether they're in the right or not doesn't matter, they will more often than not, lose. But, if one company sues another company for bad faith, those tactics won't work anymore. In the end, the one who was in the wrong will lose.