What's wrong with this lawyer?!

Magic City. Chen Jiaquan was really over the moon. A man over fifty, he spoke on the Internet as if he were a mischievous teenager.

"@LawyerOldDu, come on, keep yelling, keep it up, didn't you say that this case couldn't be overturned? What about now? I remember you even made a bet with someone!"

"You don't even understand the core concept of legitimate self-defense, yet you dare spout nonsense on the Internet. I'm curious where you get your courage from. Do you even deserve to call yourself a legal professional?"

At this moment, Chen Jiaquan finally experienced what it felt like to be on Tang Fangjing's side, mocking others.

Although he still despised Tang Fangjing, he had to admit... it felt pretty awesome...

As for LawyerOldDu, who was tagged, that was Wang Jing's mentor, Professor Du, sitting in his office, practically wanting to smash his phone.

Chen Jiaquan's words were one thing, but there were many such comments online right now. The most crucial was from the guy called "Show Yourself Baby!"

"Show Yourself Baby!": "Hey, legal illiterate, come out already. Are you playing dead after losing the bet? Not to be rude, but you guys are like empty vessels making the most noise..."

"We had an agreement, didn't we? You were supposed to post a video online of you barking like a dog. Come on, hurry up. I'm waiting to see it. Weren't you the one who said 'a dog's gotta have guts'!"

"..."
Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

It was all similar rhetoric. Professor Du really couldn't stand it anymore. It was heart-wrenching, the kind that goes straight for the heart.

He had used this alternate account for a year or two. Usually, his professional comments attracted a lot of attention. Did he really have to make a video of himself barking like a dog this time?

Of course, there were many dissenters online. Although a court verdict is supposed to mean everything, at the end of the day, it's still people making the decisions.

Since it's a judgment made by human beings, there will inevitably be different opinions, including those from senior legal experts.

For them, the judges making these decisions could very well have been their students once. The legal circle is actually quite small, especially as you move up the ranks.

So the online debates continued.

Lu Xun once said that the joys and sorrows of people do not communicate with one another, and he couldn't have been more correct.

The spectators online were arguing fervently, but even if they lost the argument, it didn't really matter—worst case, they could act like ostriches for a few days, or just delete their accounts and run away.

However, for Bai Yongqi, these days were tough to get through.

Before the retrial verdict, he had known the outcome. Such influential cases would generally go through a judicial committee's discussion, or even seek guidance from higher courts.

But regardless of the process, based on the outcome, his initial judgment had indeed been wrong.

The retrial verdict overturned the previous one entirely, recognizing on the one hand that it was not an act of provocation and on the other that it was legitimate self-defense.

The implications were significant; he might even be subject to a review.

Judges making wrong decisions in cases generally do not bear criminal responsibility in normal circumstances—after all, to err is human, especially since the law itself is so complex.

But if a judge actively or negligently causes a wrongful conviction to occur, then they might bear criminal responsibility, which is a crime of dereliction of duty.

Take a real-life case, for instance, from the 2000s, when a court's criminal division chief judged a fraud case. The defendant's lawyer pointed out issues with the evidence and requested the court to examine it, but the judge ignored this and instead sought instructions from a higher court.

In the end, the person was sentenced to ten years in prison.

After the defendant appealed and the second trial upheld the verdict, his family kept appealing. Four years later, the case was retried, the individual was released not guilty, and the presiding judge was sentenced to a year and a half for dereliction of duty.

This was pure negligence distinct from wrongful convictions due to factual or legal errors.

Nevertheless, even if criminal responsibility isn't necessary, internal punishment is inevitable, similar to that judge from Changlu County that Old Tang met while spreading legal awareness.

At Changlv County Court, Wen Weilin looked fiercely grim, his phone now a casualty, which he couldn't help but destroy after hearing the verdict.

"What the hell is this joint aggression of unarmed men, and how can that be considered legitimate self-defense? Is this verdict based on the law, or on whims?"

In Wen Weilin's opinion, there was something wrong with the verdict on the case. Maybe he didn't consider the people around during the first trial and ruled too harshly, but how could it possibly be legitimate self-defense?

However, no matter what Wen Weilin thought, the verdict was final, and as the first trial judge, he could not escape discipline.

Picking up his broken phone, a calmer Wen Weilin felt waves of heartache—for it was a new phone he had bought just last month...

What a pity that a lawyer like Tang Fangjing would never come to a small place like Changlv County; otherwise, he would have liked to test Tang's mettle.

Other people might fear Tang for being an internet celebrity, but not him. What should be will be!

Meanwhile, Ding Deshui was on a phone call.

"Yes, from now on, Huang Licheng is innocent. All I want to know is why, and that's good enough for me. The court judged it so. Brother, there's really no helping it. But after all, the guy has already been locked up for two years, and now that he's innocent, at most, the state will just have to compensate a little."

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. I'll discuss the rest when I get back."

After hanging up, Ding Deshui shook his head. His younger brother had called to ask about the situation, which he understood, considering his brother had been severely attacked last time and was holding a grudge.