What's wrong with this lawyer?!

Normally, Tang Fangjing is very thorough when considering any issue.

For him to start thinking about execution issues even before filing a lawsuit, it usually means the company or individual in question has obvious financial red flags.

However, with these three companies, he had found no problems during his preliminary investigation.

Take Hanxi Construction, a state-owned enterprise in Hanxi Province. For such companies, asset preservation isn't even worth considering; the court almost never approves preservation measures for entities like these.

It's like suing a government department for money—while you may know they don't have the funds to pay you, can you seek pre-litigation asset preservation? Can you directly freeze a government department's bank accounts?

Dekang Company and Risheng Company also appeared to have no issues.

The project in question was only completed this April, so theoretically, there should still be money in their accounts!

If there's no money now, then either Hanxi Construction hasn't paid at all—something that's not unheard of these days—or...

The reality is that construction firms are increasingly having to front the capital to start projects.

Tang Fangjing had even heard someone say that these days, when a client looks for contractors, the first thing they assess is whether the contractor can fund the project upfront. If they can't, they're automatically excluded.

And so, construction companies and contractors are being set up for failure...

If Hanxi Construction had already disbursed the project funds and there's still no money now, it must mean Dekang Company moved the funds elsewhere.

Now that's an interesting situation. If the money was transferred out after the lawsuit was filed, it could potentially lead to charges of evading enforcement!

Tang Fangjing felt a bit frustrated—why were they pushing him like this? He had even resolved not to send anyone to jail this time.

But looking at the current situation, it almost seemed like the other side was desperate to get themselves locked up!

The execution judge sitting across from Tang Fangjing naturally couldn't read his thoughts and instead said, "Lawyer Tang, we haven't checked the bank transaction records yet."

Seeing Tang Fangjing glance at him, the judge quickly added, "Lawyer Tang, you should understand our current situation. I'm personally handling nearly a thousand execution cases at the moment, so it's really..."

Tang Fangjing nodded to show his understanding; the judge wasn't lying.

Tang Fangjing had dealt with the execution judges in Bright District before. On average, each execution judge there takes on at least 300 execution cases per year.

And that's just the new applications for compulsory execution each year.

What you must realize is that execution is a lengthy process, so there are always backlog cases from the previous years and even years before that.

A thousand cases isn't the highest number. One execution judge in Bright District had more than 1,500 cases at one point...

Even though there are many issues with execution nowadays, it's fair to say the main problem is indeed too many cases and too few people.

As for the judge's inquiry system, while it's become more robust, there are still significant limitations.

Take banks, for example. There are currently 4,493 banks in the country!

Even with the total-to-total inquiry system, the coverage isn't complete. It's difficult to handle all the various credit unions, township banks, rural commercial banks, and so on.

Moreover, the inquiry system only checks the account's current balance; if you want transaction records, you still must go offline to investigate.

Then there are online funding accounts, the typical examples being WeChat and Alipay.

Current balances in these accounts can now be checked, but for features like WeChat Wallet or Alipay's Yu'ebao, those can't be directly queried because they are classified as funds. The court must issue assistance orders for the fund companies to release the information.

And insurance? That's even more challenging. Cooperation between insurance companies and the courts in this area lags far behind banks. To investigate someone's insurance details, courts almost always have to rely on offline inquiries.

With so many cases, it's impossible to carry out offline checks for every single one. If the total-to-total inquiry system doesn't find any enforceable assets, then the case is closed as "terminated due to lack of assets" once the allotted time runs out.

So you can imagine how inefficient execution can be under such conditions.

At this, Tang Fangjing said, "Here's what we'll do: issue me an Investigation Order, and I'll take care of checking the transaction records and financial details myself. Is that alright?"

The execution judge quickly nodded, "Of course, Lawyer Tang. I don't have much choice either; today alone, I've had more than twenty parties requesting to meet with me."

"If I don't meet with them soon, something's bound to happen..."

On the one hand, he couldn't afford to offend Tang Fangjing and wanted to prioritize his cases.

On the other, he was genuinely in a difficult spot—some cases had been stuck in his hands for over a year with no progress, and the involved parties were getting anxious and frustrated. He had to provide some explanations.

Thus, when Tang Fangjing offered to handle the investigation himself, the judge felt a wave of relief.

The next morning, Tang Fangjing arrived at the Execution Bureau to pick up the Investigation Order and immediately started preparing to conduct his investigation.

The first step was to check the bank transaction records for the opposing company's accounts. The investigation authorized by the court allowed him to trace records up to one year back.

For most normal cases, the limit was one year, although in some regions, local practices allowed for tracing up to two years.

In divorce cases, the standard limit was also one year.

So far, two accounts belonging to the opposing company were identified—a basic account and a general account—both held at Xiping City Development Bank. Tang Fangjing took a taxi directly to the respective branch.

Upon entering, he casually approached a staff member and handed over the Investigation Order. The staff member took a glance at the order and then at Tang Fangjing, asking curiously, "Tang Fangjing?"

Tang Fangjing nodded without saying a word.

The staff member immediately broke into a smile. "Lawyer Tang, please wait a moment. I'll report this to my supervisor right away."

There were no hiccups whatsoever. In fact, someone even escorted Tang Fangjing to the second floor, poured him a cup of tea, and invited him to sit down while he waited.