Chapter 1077: Chapter 349 Something Seems Off About This Boss_3

As for whether you need to file a lawsuit if the other party refuses to compensate after the workplace injury is recognized… definitely not.

Article 41 of the “Social Insurance Law” stipulates: If the employer fails to pay workers’ compensation insurance premiums according to law and a workplace injury occurs, the employer shall be responsible for the workers’ compensation benefits. If the employer fails to pay, the workers’ compensation insurance fund shall advance the payment.

In other words, if the employer refuses to pay, the workers’ compensation insurance fund will cover it first, and then the fund will recover the costs from the employer.

As for how they recover the costs, that’s their business. Article 63 of the “Social Insurance Law” also has provisions on this, and it is certainly much more effective than if you were trying to demand it yourself.

After spending another day in Xihe City, Tang Fangjing headed back to Xiping City the next day. Fortunately, his health is quite good now; otherwise, the back-and-forth travel would have been overwhelming for the average person.

By the time he arrived in Xiping City, it was already afternoon. Tang Fangjing immediately started preparing the litigation materials without a moment’s rest. Although it was just a simple lawsuit for the right to information disclosure, there was still a lot to prepare.

First, he needed to prove that Lin Youliang had sustained the injury on this particular project. Second, he needed to prove that Hanxi Construction Group Company was the general contractor for this project.

Finally, he had to prove that Hanxi Construction Group Company did indeed prepare an accident investigation report!

Although during the earlier conversation with General Manager Ma, the latter admitted they had prepared the report, nobody knows if someone might suddenly backtrack and deny it altogether in court.

Therefore, corresponding evidence was necessary. It didn’t have to be conclusive, but there had to be a high degree of probability.

To this end, Tang specifically inquired with Lin Youliang about where the information had originated.

The answer came from other co-workers on the project. Tang spent an entire day calling those co-workers one by one, and by midday the next day, he finally managed to contact two co-workers who had been working alongside Lin Youliang at the time.

At the time, Lin Youliang had been painting the inside of a container, while these two had been working outside. After the incident, Hanxi Construction Group Company had even sought them out for an investigation, making them ideal witnesses.

“Lawyer Tang, we’d like to help with Old Lin’s matter, but you see, it’s hard enough to find work these days. Plus, going all the way to Xiping and back takes time, not to mention the trip itself… we just can’t do it…”

Tang had anticipated that the witnesses might be unwilling to testify.

Although the Civil Procedure Law stipulates that everyone is obligated to testify, and the court can compel someone to appear if they refuse to testify,

in practice, barely anyone does that. After all, these people were cooperating with you voluntarily; if you start forcing them, what does that make them?

Bribing them with money was also out of the question.

The reason was simple. Although the Civil Procedure Law doesn’t explicitly prohibit giving money to witnesses, on principle, if you pay a witness a significant amount of money and the other party or the court finds out, the court might not accept their testimony.

The rationale being that it could be perceived as buying their testimony.

Of course, reasonable compensation for lost wages, travel expenses, and accommodation costs is allowed, but even then, such costs need to be pre-deposited with the court, which will disburse the funds after review.

However, this also means the witnesses themselves have to cover the expenses in advance… In conclusion, the rules regarding witnesses are, honestly, a headache.

As a compromise, Tang decided to take another approach. He went to the site where the two were working, brought them to a notary office, and had their testimonies notarized. It was the only workable solution.

Between everything, another three days passed. During this time, Tang barely had any rest–he was either traveling or working constantly.

The registered address of Hanxi Construction Group Company was in Lanshan District, Xiping City. So, on a rainy day, Tang brought the necessary materials to the Lanshan District Court.

The process was familiar. After submitting the materials, the staff looked through them. Before they even said a word, Tang had already taken off his jacket.

On the back of his jacket was the iconic image: a cartoon dump truck hitting a person, with a speech bubble next to the person that said: “I am Tang Fangjing.”

The staff member stared at him in stunned silence before finally speaking: “Lawyer… Lawyer Tang, this case of yours is relatively simple, and it should be able to proceed to filing…”