To eradicate education and consumer disputes, the court issued "targeted" judicial recommendations

To root out education and consumer disputes, the Jincheng District Court issued a "targeted" judicial recommendation

□ reporter Ma Chao

□ Wang Zeyu, trainee reporter of "Legal System and News"

"Written test, full refund" "Can participate in national competitions and summer camps, let your child win at the starting line! ”

Nowadays, all kinds of training institutions attract the attention of people in need with various gimmicks, from postgraduate examinations, public examinations, and teachers to children's dance, art, and taekwondo, but under such strong publicity, can the rights and interests of education consumers be really protected?

Recently, the Jincheng Urban District People's Court of Shanxi Province started from several training institutions, insisted on active justice, extended the tentacles of mediation, "grasped the front end and treated the disease before it happened", aimed at the prepaid consumption of the education and training industry, and issued "targeted" judicial suggestions for source governance, so as to achieve the effect of handling one case and governing one piece.

In August 2022, Liu signed a training service agreement with a technology company in Jincheng for teacher examination training, agreeing that "if the written test is not available, the fee will be fully refunded".

After the results of the teacher examination were announced in February 2023, Liu failed the written test, and Liu submitted an application for a refund to a technology company in Jincheng, but the company repeatedly delayed the refund period. Liu then sued the court, demanding that a technology company in Jincheng refund the advance payment of 2,22300 yuan.

Coincidentally, Ms. Chen's children are in the second grade of primary school this year, and by chance, a new training institution opened in front of her house attracted her attention. The training institution claims that its courses include dance, calligraphy, art, etc., and it seems that the curriculum is very rich, and she can also participate in national competitions and summer camp activities, and Ms. Chen was moved.

After listening to a few lessons, Ms. Chen felt that it was not bad, at that time, when the training institution was opened, the discount was large, so she signed up for the child and paid various fees totaling 4198 yuan. However, after the start of the training course, the teacher was changed frequently, and then the door of the training institution was locked, and the course stopped. However, when Ms. Chen contacted the person in charge by phone, Wang Mou, she was replied: "The money is not handed over to me, you will ask for it from whoever you give the money to." ”

After Liu sued a technology company in Jincheng to the court, the case was transferred to the pre-litigation mediation center. The mediator first contacted the defendant by phone, and after no results, took the initiative to contact the plaintiff to verify the circumstances of the case one by one, including the registration time, training category, training fee amount, training period, etc., and refined the focus and core information of the case. At the same time, the mediator rushed to the defendant company to patiently reason, so that the defendant company agreed to return the advance receipt, but due to the difficulty of capital turnover, the two parties finally reached an installment repayment agreement and applied for judicial confirmation.

In Ms. Chen's case, the case was transferred to litigation because the defendant did not agree to mediation. In the lawsuit, the court held that the case was a dispute over an education and training contract. According to Article 465 of the Civil Code, contracts formed in accordance with law are protected by law. Both parties shall fully perform their obligations as agreed. The defendant ceased business and was unable to provide training services to the plaintiff in accordance with the training location and training conditions agreed by both parties, which was a serious breach of contract, and the plaintiff had the right to rescind the contract and demand a refund of the relevant registration fee.

Adhering to the concept of "the case is closed", the judge organized mediation again to clarify the responsibility of the training institution for entrusting the contract dispute, and finally the two parties voluntarily reached a mediation agreement, and the training institution returned the advance payment in installments.

With the increasing number of education and training contract dispute cases and strong demands of the parties, the Jincheng Urban District People's Court will effectively connect pre-litigation joint mediation, judicial confirmation and litigation, mediate typical cases with exemplary significance such as Liu and Ms. Chen, and then conduct unified mediation and handling of other similar disputes after forming a mediation plan, and drive the efficient resolution of batch cases through case demonstration handling.

However, the Jincheng Urban District People's Court still feels that the current work of the court is to deal with cases after they occur, and judges are thinking about how to "treat diseases before they occur" and prevent these cases before they occur.

In this regard, the Jincheng Urban People's Court issued "targeted" judicial recommendations to five units: Jincheng Urban Education and Technology Bureau, Jincheng Urban Market Supervision Administration, Jincheng Urban Taxation Bureau, Jincheng Urban Culture and Tourism Bureau, and People's Bank of China Jincheng City Central Sub-branch.

The judicial advice points out that since June 2022, 6 disputes have been accepted by training institutions, all of which are disputes over advance payment refunds.

In order to avoid such a situation from continuing to occur, it is recommended that: 1. Implement the daily supervision of advance receipts, strengthen risk investigation and source resolution, and issue risk early warnings to the public according to the degree of risk; 2. Implement risk control of advance receipts, adopt the methods of bank custody and risk margin, open special accounts for custody of pre-charged funds, and manage funds in separate accounts; 3. Carry out publicity on education and practitioners, strengthen supervision and management of the training market in accordance with law, and improve the merchant credit protection system; 4. Pay attention to the linkage and mediation of disputes, persist in putting the non-litigation resolution mechanism in the forefront, and all responsible departments should organically connect and coordinate with the courts, and smooth diversified channels for resolving disputes.

Such judicial suggestions govern the advance receipts of training institutions from the source, effectively guard the "money bags" of education consumers, and further help create a safe and secure consumption environment and a fair and orderly education market. (Rule of Law Daily)