Chinanews Client Beijing, August 4 (Peng Ningling) "XXX issued a lawyer's statement", "XXX issued a lawyer's statement again"... Recently, the lawyer's statement released by celebrities has repeatedly appeared in hot searches and has attracted widespread attention.
However, the frequent occurrence of "car overturning" incidents also caused netizens to question: What is the lawyer's statement?
What is the legal effect?
In response, Chinanews interviewed An Xiang, director of Beijing Dexiang Law Firm and deputy director of the Civil Law Committee of the Beijing Bar Association, to answer the lawyer's statement from the legal level.
Chinanews.com: What is a lawyer's statement?
An Xiang: The lawyer's statement is a legal opinion that the lawyer accepts the client’s entrustment, in order to protect the client’s legal rights and interests, and is publicly released to represent the client’s thoughts.
In other words,
what the lawyer said is what the client said.
Chinanews.com: What might be the next step after the lawyer's statement is released?
An Xiang: The next step the lawyer stated is that there is no clear legal requirement, and it is mainly based on the client's own wishes.
Some parties are over after the declaration, and some parties will really take rights protection measures in accordance with the content of the declaration after the declaration is over.
For example, it is possible to file a lawsuit in the court or report the police to the police.
Chinanews.com: What is the legal significance of the lawyer's statement? Some netizens questioned that if the party concerned has evidence such as defamation and rumor, why not directly report to the police and make a statement on the other side?
An Xiang: Of course, the parties concerned have the right to sue or report to the police in accordance with the law.
However, entrusting a lawyer to issue a statement not only represents the parties to take rights protection actions, but also publicizes their rights protection attitudes and actions to show their determination and deter infringers.
Therefore, in addition to the legal effect, the
lawyer's statement is more of a statement to the public, which is mainly public, and does not mean that it has legal force.
Compared with the lawyer's statement, the
lawyer's letter is relatively in nature. The target of the release is more specific, mainly the infringing party, reminding the other party: We may take rights protection actions and immediately stop the infringement.
This is a way for both parties to seek a non-litigation solution after a dispute occurs.
Chinanews.com: Some lawyers clearly mentioned the name of a certain user in their statements and claimed that the other party was involved in rumors, slander, and reputational violations, which might even cause online violence. If it is proved after the fact that what a user said is true, does the similar statement infringe the rights of others? What are the responsibilities of the publishing party? Who should bear the specifics?
An Xiang: Indeed, when the name and privacy of the other party are involved in the statement, if the other party does not have such illegal acts after the final verification, it may also infringe the other party's legal rights and interests such as reputation rights.
Therefore, the lawyer's statement itself may become an illegal fact of infringement and shall bear the corresponding legal responsibility.
If the infringement is indeed caused, since the lawyer is accepting the client’s entrustment to express his opinions, the client himself is the first to bear the responsibility.
However, if the lawyer's remarks are clearly beyond the scope of the Lawyers Law, beyond the limitations of the lawyer's words and deeds, the scope of the normal profession, there is professional fault, the client can also be held accountable to the lawyer.
But that is a matter of recovering afterwards. First of all, the parties should be made to bear corresponding responsibilities to the infringed object.
(Finish)