How I, as a Lawyer, Would Get Back Money I Lent - 16 (Handling Settlements)

[ Introduction ]

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In this blog, I share what I, as a lawyer, would do if I were to become a 'party' to a dispute or trouble.

I myself have never been a party to a major dispute or trouble in my life, so perhaps I am not in a position to speak for the suffering or anxiety of those who are facing such situations at this very moment.

However, I believe that if I can share how I would handle being a party to a dispute from a lawyer's perspective, it might be useful to all of you reading this.

Since this is strictly 'what I would do,' it may not necessarily apply to everyone reading, but I would be very happy if you could use my methods as a hint and apply them in your own way.

Unfortunately, I cannot know the faces or names of those reading this, but thank you for visiting. It is truly encouraging.

[ Today's Topic: Getting Back Money You Lent ]

Today, I will continue to talk about 'getting back money you lent'.

To review briefly, there are two major hurdles when trying to get back money you lent.

・Can you prove it?

・Are there funds available for repayment?

These two.

If you cannot prove that you lent the money in the first place, you will lose if it eventually goes to litigation.

Even if the reason you lost is 'because you couldn't prove it,' once you lose, it is legally established in court that the loan 'did not exist'.

This is the scary part.

If you cannot prove it, the court will declare that 'no loan took place'.

If that happens, despite you being the one who filed the lawsuit, you end up leaving a result that is extremely favorable to the hostess.

You pay the stamp duty (for a claim of 4 million yen, the stamp duty is 25,000 yen), you pay for postage stamps (at the Tokyo District Court, you pay 6,000 yen worth of stamps), and on top of that, you pay a retainer fee to the lawyer you hired (based on general standards, for a 4 million yen claim, the retainer is 290,000 yen plus consumption tax), and in the end, you 'hand over' a result that is favorable to the hostess.

This is the conclusion when you 'cannot prove it'.

Since this is something I absolutely must avoid, I secured a repayment promise from the hostess (repaying the remaining 4 million yen in 200,000 yen installments) and established a 'quasi-loan for consumption'.

To prove a loan, one must prove each instance of handing over cash, but since that is unnecessary with a quasi-loan for consumption, I made a new agreement.

And another very serious issue is, 'Does the hostess have the funds to repay?'

Before filing a lawsuit, there is a method called 'provisional attachment' to secure the source of repayment in advance, but as I explained yesterday, this is quite difficult.

If it were me, I wouldn't give up on provisional attachment, but basically, I would focus on proving the case in court and aim for a final judgment.

Then, as the lawsuit progresses, the judge will inevitably ask, 'Why don't you settle?'

I don't refuse settlement from the start, but in light of what I promised the hostess, I filed this lawsuit precisely because she broke her promise.

I, too, would not file a lawsuit as long as the hostess continues to make repayments properly.

Or rather, I cannot file one. Since I promised that it would be fine if she repaid 200,000 yen every month, I cannot legally demand any more than that.

It is precisely because this promise was broken by the hostess that I filed the lawsuit.

If that is the case, my trust in the hostess has plummeted, and I don't think she would keep any settlement agreement, no matter how much the judge mediates it.

I would never reduce the amount claimed, and I would not agree to a settlement unless I received a lump sum of a certain amount (over 1 million yen) and the monthly repayment amount was at least 300,000 yen.

If a settlement is proposed, I will proceed in this manner. If the hostess's side agrees to that, then a settlement is fine, and if they don't agree, I will just get a judgment.

And once a judgment is obtained or a settlement is reached, a procedure called 'property disclosure' becomes available.

This is getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but I will write about 'property disclosure' again tomorrow.

See you tomorrow! ...↓

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