Going through a nasty court case at the moment where I often get the feeling that this bloke is telling the truth...and that's only when I'm talking to my own lawyer, let alone trying to do anything with the other side and those in-between us.

Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Going through a nasty court case at the moment where I often get the feeling that this bloke is telling the truth...and that's only when I'm talking to my own lawyer, let alone trying to do anything with the other side and those in-between us.

If you're already into the court phase, it's pretty straight forward. It's during the investigation phase, before any indictments, that they can mess with you and as in the recent Osaka case, mess with the evidence. But, I do have to say that in having had business dealings with numerous procurators in another life, I found most of them to be honest and open. Notice I said "most". It's those other assholes that ruin the whole show...

Fortunately, I'm civil (which is more than I can say for anybody else involved), but that's been bad enough and I can envisage criminal cases being hell...

Yakuza and foreigners...what's the connection there? Tattoos?

Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Fortunately, I'm civil (which is more than I can say for anybody else involved), but that's been bad enough and I can envisage criminal cases being hell...

I feel your pain, I'm heading back stateside for mediation soon (at least it's the California legal system I guess) and having fun with the slow and expensive process of a civil case where the defendant has no ammo and seems to have taken the strategy of just making the process long and difficult for me.

chokonen888 wrote:Yakuza and foreigners...what's the connection there? Tattoos?

Filthy scum!

chokonen888 wrote:I feel your pain, I'm heading back stateside for mediation soon (at least it's the California legal system I guess) and having fun with the slow and expensive process of a civil case where the defendant has no ammo and seems to have taken the strategy of just making the process long and difficult for me.

Precisely what I'm going through, except I'm the one with nothing and the defendant is stretching things out to keep it that way. And everybody knows I'm gonna lose in the end, but we all still go through the motions because TIJ. Great fun, huh?
Actually, my advice is to just take it all in as a learning experience and enjoy the ride. I've always liked being screwed; it's just this time it happens to be in a courthouse (and figurative rather than literal, unfortunately, as the latter would be a real turn-on!)

Public prosecutors get ahead by bringing cases quickly and winning them. What that unscrupulous senior colleague was passing on to his junior is that it's easier to cut corners with gangsters and foreigners.

With the yakuza, I suppose he assumes no-one will speak up for them. After all, there's rarely a question of whether someone is in a gang since they are all officially signed up. In the case of foreigners, he's saying that you can speed things up because they don't know what's going on.

In some early incarnation, this was probably well-meant advice. I don't think he was recommending his colleagues stitch up innocent people. Rather he was probably telling his colleague how to speed up processing guilty suspects. Foreigners can be time-consuming because of the need for translators so he was effectively saying you can skip all that with no consequences because everyone will assume the foreigner got it wrong rather than you.

Ichikawa got caught out when he took a short-cut in 2001 (not with a foreign suspect) and his presentation to the symposium explained how the working culture became such that prosecutors ended up getting false confessions from innocent people instead of just speedy confessions from guilty parties.

Mulboyne wrote:prosecutors ended up getting false confessions from innocent people

No biggy. You got a confession. What else do you need? The defendant probably did something wrong some other time, so why worry? Just jail the dood up and go find another sucker...

chokonen888 wrote:You could even go as far as anonymously faxing copies of the court documents to their suppliers, customer, etc.

To be purfectly safe I recommend any internet cafe in Abbottabad...

We are going through something similar at present. Hubilicious was hit by a taxi when he was riding his bike home from work. Taxi company insurance company fart arsing around for a while and now it comes out that the taxi company are saying it wasn't their fault. (Taxi went through red light at Omote sando/Aoyama dori intersection.)

They are taking care of the doctors bills fine but they are balking on the replacement of the bike (expensive hybrid bike) and other broken items like iPod etc. Personally I think they are trying it on as he is foreign.

We will wait to see what their offer is before doing anything else. But I was going to ask what options there are for us to take it further if they totally low ball us.

I was going to start another thread on this but thought I would tack it on here.

Well, since 90%+ of foreigners in Japan are Chinese or Koreans, we whities should be OK.

Crystal Skull wrote:Well, since 90%+ of foreigners in Japan are Chinese or Koreans, we whities should be OK.

"Whites" don't you mean, all non-Asians?

GomiGirl wrote:Personally I think they are trying it on as he is foreign.

Prime reason to get a lawyer and hit 'em hard...except, TIJ. My experience of the courts here suggests that everyone loses, even lawyers, whose take of winnings is normally significant, but the winnings are always so meagre.
If you've got a lawyer on retainer, skitch 'em. If not, they cost big bikkies, take a large chunk of anything you win and you're up against a bigger company that will just keep the case in court and drain away your money, time and will to fight, all with the complicit aid of the legal system, which will continually push for mediation and other piss-farting around so it doesn't have to make a decision and can continue lining the pockets of all its leeches.

GomiGirl wrote:Personally I think they are trying it on as he is foreign.

Prime reason to get a lawyer and hit 'em hard...except, TIJ. My experience of the courts here suggests that everyone loses, even lawyers, whose take of winnings is normally significant, but the winnings are always so meagre.
If you've got a lawyer on retainer, skitch 'em. If not, they cost big bikkies, take a large chunk of anything you win and you're up against a bigger company that will just keep the case in court and drain away your money, time and will to fight, all with the complicit aid of the legal system, which will continually push for mediation and other piss-farting around so it doesn't have to make a decision and can continue lining the pockets of all its leeches.

GomiGirl wrote:We are going through something similar at present. Hubilicious was hit by a taxi when he was riding his bike home from work.

Is he okay?

cstaylor wrote:8-O Is he okay?

Thank you for asking.

He is fine. He rolled over the bonnet of the taxi when it hit him. Just a few bruises thankfully. He was quite shaken up at the time. He always wears a helmet as the bike is his main form of transport and he is a speed demon on it.

The bike is toast though. It is a good one with lots of mods.

Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Prime reason to get a lawyer and hit 'em hard...except, TIJ. My experience of the courts here suggests that everyone loses, even lawyers, whose take of winnings is normally significant, but the winnings are always so meagre.
If you've got a lawyer on retainer, skitch 'em. If not, they cost big bikkies, take a large chunk of anything you win and you're up against a bigger company that will just keep the case in court and drain away your money, time and will to fight, all with the complicit aid of the legal system, which will continually push for mediation and other piss-farting around so it doesn't have to make a decision and can continue lining the pockets of all its leeches.

Which is why I would put more effort and time into a strategy to shame them into settling. As you already know, many Japanese will go out of their way to avoid any perceivable/foreseeable trouble. (no matter how unlikely and retarded) Simply filing the court paperwork for the lawsuit is official enough to cause some trouble for them. As I mentioned before, as overcautious as Japanese businesses are, you can easily use that as a tool to put on the hurt. The more attention you draw to how they are screwing you, the less likely they are to gain new customers/suppliers. As soon as it starts affecting their business (or the fear sets in) they will want to settle.

In Gomigirl's case, I'd do research on the company and find a way to cause similar trouble. Find their weak spot and attack them where it hurts, using only factual info. Maybe even suggest to the company you have media contacts that are interested in doing a story on the poor response...maybe even drop "sabetsu" in the discussion. Motivate the fuckers by making them realize they have alot more to lose by not settling with you.

GomiGirl wrote:Thank you for asking.

He is fine. He rolled over the bonnet of the taxi when it hit him. Just a few bruises thankfully. He was quite shaken up at the time. He always wears a helmet as the bike is his main form of transport and he is a speed demon on it.

The bike is toast though. It is a good one with lots of mods.

Taxis are notoriously difficult to deal with if you're in a car to car crash. If you're on bicycle it shouldn't be a problem, though. I was hit by a motorcycle while I was riding my bicycle with both my kids (which is one more than the bicycle was designed for) and it was 100% the motorcyclist's fault.
Did the taxi have a video recorder? Many of them do...