The tribunal: The Last Line of Defense for Social Justice.

My name is Mr. Youn, I was born in South Korea, living in Switzerland since 2001. I currently live in Lausanne and recently became a Swiss citizen. I am looking for HELP, in order to fix an unfair situation, I find myself in with the Swiss legal practice.

I currently have an ongoing legal battle at Geneva court, which I feel is absolutely nonsense to have this type of litigation even opened. But the real astonishing thing is that the opposition lawyer lies to the court, not passively inclusive lies but active, repeatedly, obvious lies (despite written/shown evidence clearly showing the truth but insists on the opposite), which is total lies, “The lawyer” even further arranged misleading evidence by manipulating facts with the intention of deceiving the court. I find this level of lying very unprofessional and childish, in the beginning of the litigation I thought he would soon stop however as time went by, I soon realized this was a strategy the lawyer was using and allow him to charge ca CHF500/h, so the longer the litigation takes the better for him. At the same time this strategy is used to put a lot of psychological and financial pressure on me so I can drop the case. He continuously brings issues and facts that are not relevant to the legal matter at the court by abusively using his legal knowledge on the court procedure to drag the situation which has been ongoing for 5 years now. It looks like the Swiss legal system/practice prone to this type of abuse by lawyers, this issue is so common to a point that many legal professionals do not even classify this this as problematic abuses, that is why nobody really steps in to stop the abuse. I wonder how many ordinary Swiss citizen can afford 6 digits of legal fees? This situation within the legal system is not for ordinary citizens, simply because the middle-class citizens cannot afford it!

After having experienced such a case, I would like to voice out my concerns and issues, with hopes to STOP this form of cheating and manipulation used by the lawyer in the court.

1. He looks rather famous, as he often appears on a major TV channel as an expert lawyer in IT matters, this therefore makes him look even more legitimate. Is it really acceptable in Switzerland that a famous special lawyer hired by a multinational company (not such a well-known big one but it is certainly multinational company) in exchange for big sums of money can suffocate an innocent citizen under the name of “law”?  Like any other country, lawyers are one of the most elite in the society, intelligent and rich probably, on top of that as we all know clearly, Swiss is one of the richest country in the world. Does being a Swiss lawyer really mean one is already intelligent and rich, no? In exchange for MONEY, there is no hesitation to attack an innocent individual person by abusing using the name of Swiss law, where on earth is morality, justice, humanity?

2. In the Last 20years of living in Switzerland, I always envy Swiss when Swiss people proudly talk about “Swiss Quality”. – The allegations are totally false, too obvious and childish (so embarrassing even mentioning “Quality” ) everyone should know that it is false, but let the legal process continue to “TRY to prove – the obvious false might turn out as true ” till they run out the lists of false claims. No one really step up to stop this. Furthermore, the lawyer would practically not take any responsibility for the result of that false and childish allegations, to any one including his client or opponent client. Winning or losing the legal case does not matter, as all the legal professionals around the case earn money.

3. When I was in middle school in Korea I learnt about “Geneva Convention” and at that time I admired the humanity and historical achievement, however I never even imagined a decade later I would be in the historical court room!, where the “Geneva Convention” was discussed and hearing those ridiculous allegations from the “ expert” Swiss lawyer. Neutrality cannot be separated with justice and fairness. I believe that the image of Swiss (represented by the “Geneva Convention”, neutrality, Swiss quality) is not just simple honor for Swiss but also very important beneficial asset for Swiss well-being.

At the birthplace of “Geneva Convention” some decades later from then, what is currently happening is shameful as well as dishonorable thus this situation must be fixed.

4.People commonly have respect for the lawyers because of their quality of professionalism, under the belief that they at least would not tell lies to the tribunal directly. This is a serious betrayal of public trust, which also poses a threat to the justice of the whole society. If cheating in the court is carried out by a lawyer who is expected to act as a role model by respecting the law, how is the public expected to trust court decisions and believe in democracy?. This is not a matter of trusting individual lawyers instead the credibility of the legal system. The damage is not only to some individuals, but it damages to whole society fundamentally.

5. Be fair! – A lie to the court by a lawyer must be punished more severely than the same act carried out by an ordinary citizen because lawyers in the court have more power/privilege and more responsibility as well so the punishment should apply accordingly and progressively heavy charge. Being a lawyer means privilege/power, and the responsibility of ensuring that the legal system is respected, which is a fundamental foundation for the functioning of the judiciary. Being dishonest to the court is abandoning the relevant obligation as a lawyer and deserves to be disqualified to act as lawyer. On the other hand, multinational’s  a lot of money which if they use as a weapon to attack innocent citizens, they have to be fined a meaningful amount of money (so they can be afraid of law),just like rich car owners get more severe amount of fine against breaking the same traffic law(If they get charged a fine like ordinary citizen they would not afraid of law because the amount of fine does not have punishing effect).

6. Review for being lawful –  if there is lack of legal base in current law for the fair progressive punishment, it would be very nice to introduce the new the idea into the Swiss legal system, although small in size as a country, Switzerland has already had significant influence in  modern democracy of the world, the citizens of CH will be really proud of being Swiss if once more Swiss politicians demonstrate how civilized modern democratic human society’s law should be by introducing the idea of “The more power, the more responsibility”.

I have several objective evidences which makes me believe that this is not an isolated single abuse, rather general situation in Geneva.

I personally believe that in human society, leaders not only should promote the values that the society wish to achieve but also should show – by demonstrating oneself as example- how the ordinary members of the society could act. This type of honor and dignity serves as essential ingredients for better human beings.