What are the common tricks of fake lawyers? How to identify fake lawyers? What if I meet a fake lawyer? Let's take this case as a warning.
What is a fake lawyer?
As the name implies, a fake lawyer refers to a person who has no lawyer qualification, no practice platform and no fixed office, but still represents a case in the name of a lawyer and receives remuneration. Among them, there are also some people who illegally solicit and represent litigation business in so-called legal consulting companies and information consulting companies.
Phenomenon and litigation: I accidentally hired a fake lawyer.
Because of the real estate dispute, Mr. Huang wants to ask a lawyer to go to court. Under the introduction of acquaintances, Mr. Huang met Zheng. This person claimed to be a lawyer of a famous law firm, with more than 20 years' experience, and said that he was familiar with the leaders of the court and the real estate bureau, and asked him to represent the lawsuit and guarantee to win.
Mr. Huang listened to Zheng's assurance and gave him an agency fee of several thousand yuan without confirming Zheng's identity or checking whether he had a lawyer's license. A few days later, Zheng asked Mr. Huang for extra expenses on the grounds of inviting the court leaders to eat.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, when Mr. Huang submitted the complaint written by Zheng to the court, the court staff told him that the complaint did not meet the requirements at all. Angry Mr. Huang rushed to the law firm where Zheng called, intending to find out. As a result, the staff of the law firm told Mr. Huang that Zheng resigned several years ago. Moreover, Zheng was not a lawyer when he worked in this law firm, but an ordinary staff member. Mr. Huang, who felt bad, quickly called Zheng's mobile phone, but no one answered and Zheng disappeared.
In order to save money, Zhang Laobo, who was going to fight a divorce lawsuit, was also taken in by a fake lawyer. Some time ago, Zhang Laobo went to court to sue for divorce. Before he reached the court, he was taken away by Wang, who claimed to be a lawyer. Wang told Zhang Laobo that he had five years of litigation experience and could represent Zhang Laobo. "Low cost, guaranteed to win." Wang is talking nonsense, but Zhang Laobo believes it.
After Zhang Laobo paid the "lawyer's fee", Wang quickly wrote a divorce complaint for him. However, when Zhang Laobo entered the court with a complaint and asked to file a case, he was told that the content and format of the complaint were wrong. The judge suggested that Zhang Laobo write a complaint again and come back. Zhang Laobo is in a hurry. "I hired a professional lawyer. How can it be wrong? " When he got home, Zhang Laobo read the power of attorney carefully and found that he had been cheated. The so-called lawyer entrustment contract does not have the name of the law firm at all. What's more, the work place of "Lawyer Wang" written above can't be found at all.
"I paid for a lawyer, but I didn't expect it to be fake. I was cheated of a' lawyer's fee' in vain. " The remorseful Zhang Laobo was so angry that his friend wrote a new complaint for himself and wanted to take Wang to court for an explanation.
In fact, with the increasing prosperity of the legal service market, in recent years, there are not a few people who pretend to be lawyers to represent clients in litigation or provide non-litigation services and profit from them. Because these fake lawyers are not bound by professional norms and professional ethics system, they often make random promises, blindly quote prices, pull relationships, commit perjury, and even encourage the parties to take extreme measures to solve legal disputes. This not only disrupts the normal legal service market, but also makes the litigation disputes of some parties more prominent, which substantially damages their legitimate rights and interests and affects judicial justice and fairness.
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Fake lawyer: four tricks to cheat money
The reporter's investigation found that at present, some fake lawyers have more or less legal backgrounds, and some once had the qualification to practice as lawyers, but they were revoked, cancelled or no longer registered according to regulations; Some have worked in the judicial department, or have some interpersonal relationships in the judicial department. However, some swindlers simply fabricate lies, pretend to be lawyers, and seek illegitimate economic benefits.
Fake lawyers usually take the initiative to find a law firm that does not pay attention to their own image and practice discipline, or find some legal service centers to use the platform to accept cases in the name of "consultants" and practice illegally.
Usually, fake lawyers use the following tricks to deceive people:
One is to put on airs and pretend to be a lawyer. Fake lawyers generally don't voluntarily admit that they are not lawyers. Although some do not take the initiative to clearly name themselves as "lawyers", they are engaged in legal services that only practicing lawyers can do according to law. If a client asks to see his lawyer's practice license, fake lawyers usually find excuses to shirk it. For example, they say that only judges can read the lawyer's practice certificate, and many people don't understand this and are easily deceived.
The second is to escape the law and violate the rules. When encountering some cases that are not qualified to represent, fake lawyers often have a set of rhetoric: "Let me represent this case for you as a friend instead of a law firm. This not only saves you money, but also simplifies my court procedures, and our processing time is fast ";
The third is to mystify and encourage the parties to go to court. Fake lawyers often make some lawsuits that have little chance of winning or even need not be fought at all very simple, encouraging the parties to take action, thus collecting agency fees and defrauding money;
The fourth is to brag about yourself and win the world. Fake lawyers generally have limited business knowledge and like to show off how strong their relationship with the judiciary is in order to defraud the clients' trust.
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False lawyers can be investigated for criminal responsibility when accepting cases.
China's "Lawyers Law" stipulates that a person who has not obtained a lawyer's practice certificate may not engage in legal services in the name of a lawyer; Unless otherwise provided by law, they shall not engage in litigation agency or defense business. At the same time, the law stipulates that if a person who has not obtained a lawyer's practice certificate engages in legal services in the name of a lawyer, the judicial administrative department of the local people's government at or above the county level shall order him to stop his illegal practice, confiscate his illegal income and impose a fine of not less than 1 times but not more than 5 times his illegal income.
In addition, according to the provisions of China's Law on Public Security Administration Punishment, if a lawyer impersonates to engage in legal services, the public security organ will order him to stop his illegal practice, confiscate his illegal income, impose a fine of less than 5,000 yuan, and detain him for less than 15 days. If the case constitutes a crime, he shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.
It can be seen that impersonating a lawyer to engage in litigation agency business is not only illegal, but also bears criminal legal responsibility if the circumstances are serious.
Of course, China's laws also stipulate that people other than lawyers can accept the entrustment of others' agents ad litem or defenders as "civil agents". However, whether other citizens can represent others in litigation, except those recommended by the close relatives of the parties, relevant social organizations or the units to which the parties belong, must be examined and approved by the people's court.
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How to identify fake lawyers
First, a regular lawyer has a lawyer's practice license, and the parties can also check its authenticity in official website of the Judicial Bureau according to the lawyer's practice license number. For those who do have a lawyer's status, they should also check whether their lawyer's practice certificate is consistent with the name of their law firm and whether the registration date has passed; And pay attention to check whether there is a record of punishment for lawyers on the last page of the practice license;
Two, the regular lawyers association in the law firm to receive the parties, according to the provisions, must sign an agency contract with the parties in the name of the law firm, and go through the relevant formalities. Fake lawyers often like to receive clients in some informal places, and often do not sign written contracts with clients;
Third, regular lawyers will issue regular invoices to the parties, while fake lawyers will generally issue expense receipts or even IOUs.
It is worth mentioning that there is also a grassroots legal service worker in China, who can also provide some legal services to the parties, but only in civil and administrative cases, legal consultation, writing legal documents and other businesses. They can't represent criminal cases, nor are they real lawyers.