Episode 20

“……Why me?”

“Didn’t you hear? It’s not a problem that can be handled by an ordinary student. Then, we have to ask a ‘not ordinary’ student.”

Choi Sung-chul shrugged his shoulders as if he was showing off.

“I remember Park Yoo-seung from his undergraduate days. I can’t forget him. From the first class, he was so drunk that he was sprawled out in the back row of the lecture hall, and he also wrecked my car. He was such a delinquent, such a delinquent.”

“……”

“And yet, you not only got into Korea University Law School, but you also managed to achieve fifth place, surpassing other outstanding applicants?”

Logically, it doesn’t make sense. Choi Sung-chul added.

“For that to make sense, you have to be a genius who defies common sense. Of course, I think that’s possible. After all, you’re the nephew of Dean Kang Chang-soo, who was even called a pillar of Korean law, aren’t you?”

Choi Sung-chul specifically mentioned my blood relation with Kang Chang-soo.

Along with asserting that my scores were illogical.

“I’m just saying, let’s see your skills, genius.”

The intent was, of course, obvious.

‘……This guy.’

Choi Sung-chul clearly intended to corner me and make me look bad with a case that even the top student Shin Seo-joon had acknowledged that he couldn't solve at the student level.

And then, he would raise questions about my scores, using that as material to shake Dean Kang Chang-soo.

“Did you hear that?”

“Park Yoo-seung is the Dean’s nephew? Then maybe……”

In fact, the suspicion that Choi Sung-chul had planted was already sprouting among the students’ murmurs.

Of course, he was completely wrong.

Kang Chang-soo had only seen me as a thorn in his side, and the scores were something that I, who had possessed the body of the real Park Yoo-seung, had obtained fairly by twisting myself inside out.

And above all.

“Okay.”

For me, this case was not an unsolvable problem.

“Sure, I’ll do it.”

“Wh, whaa……?”

When I headed towards the phone without any hesitation, a look of bewilderment flashed across Choi Sung-chul's face.

“Ah, Mr. Oh Gi-tae. Can you hear me?”

• Ah, yes, yes.

“First, I’ve organized and reviewed the things that you’ve said so far.”

• Yes.

“Based on just this, it seems difficult to legally attack the nursing home.”

• Th, that can’t be……

“There are two main points that you can claim in civil law in this case.”

One. A claim for damages based on the nursing home’s violation of its ‘duty of care’ to look after Oh Gi-tae’s father and maintain his health in relation to the accident.

Two. A claim for damages for medical malpractice in that the nursing home's orthopedics department misdiagnosed the father's injury, leading to a serious injury.

‘The legal basis for both is Article 750 of the Civil Act, but there’s no need to explain that.’

I wasn’t writing an answer sheet.

What I had to do now was give an explanation and a course of action to an ordinary person who knew nothing about the law in a way that they could understand.

The legal principles were enough to be properly written down in the opinion letter later.

“Both are difficult. First, since a nursing home is not a real hospital or medical institution, they are not required to meet a high level of obligation like them. If they are only properly equipped with safety facilities and the number of caregivers as required by the related laws, it is difficult to recognize negligence.”

• Th, then what about the medical malpractice side?

“That’s also difficult. Although you can claim misdiagnosis since there was a difference from the university hospital's diagnosis, not every misdiagnosis is considered negligence.”

I also gave an easy example.

“Have you ever seen this kind of news before? There was a case where a doctor misdiagnosed an X-ray image, and a patient was transferred to another place after receiving the wrong treatment, and then died of complications six months later. It seems like it was the doctor’s fault, but the Supreme Court denied medical malpractice even in that case.”

• That’s ridiculous.

“……How does he know such precedents?”

Someone muttered.

How do I know?

Because I’m a transmigrator!

That case was a case that had happened in 1986.

Of course, it was a precedent that I, who had been studying for the bar exam, had seen at least once in the ‘Proof of Special Tort Liability’ section.

It was an old precedent, so it was often missing from recent books, but I had searched for that precedent while reminiscing about my memories when this episode was being serialized in the original story.

I had even posted a link in the comments and received a best comment, where I had felt my shoulder rise with pride at the comments admiring me as a ‘legal know-it-all.’

Even the fact that this precedent had actually been mentioned in the following serialized episodes made it something that I couldn't forget even if I wanted to.

“Of course, you should still make the claim, so find and keep the X-ray images, diagnoses, and doctor’s opinions from that time. Along with the diagnoses that you received from the university hospital.”

But the chances of it working were low.

Doctors were sacred professionals who dealt with life, and they carried a huge burden because of that.

Therefore, the courts tended to be very cautious when determining whether their judgments were right or wrong.

‘Unless it’s a case where it’s so clear that any doctor would have diagnosed it correctly, and there’s no way that 100 out of 100 doctors would have made a wrong diagnosis…… it’s difficult to get them to recognize medical malpractice.’

Anyway, therefore, it was not easy to hold them liable in civil law.

• Th, then is criminal punishment possible?

“Unfortunately, that’s even more difficult.”

In criminal trials, there was a general principle of ‘in dubio pro reo,’ which meant ‘when in doubt, for the benefit of the accused.’

Ultimately, the criminal process was a process where the state stepped in to label a person as a criminal and forcefully impose certain disadvantages.

In modern free democratic countries, this had to be done as carefully as possible, and they could not create even one unfair criminal.

Therefore, all the legal principles of criminal law were basically interpreted and applied to the benefit of the accused.

That was why, even for the same incident, it was much more difficult to have a defendant’s ‘negligence’ recognized in a criminal trial than in a civil trial.

• That’s ridiculous. My father is like this, and there’s nothing that we can do!

The client, Oh Gi-tae, was outraged, but what could I do when the judicial order was like that?

The students who were listening together were also in an atmosphere where they were more or less accepting it.

“What can you do when the precedents are like that.”

“The tort liability itself is a familiar legal provision, but…… the standards for negligence or the burden of proof are too difficult.”

“Still, he did a good job of organizing the familiar legal principles with the unfamiliar precedents. I couldn’t even grasp the main points, but it’s amazing that he was able to come to a conclusion that it couldn’t be done.”

At the same time, the suspicion towards me had also subsided somewhat.

Although it was possible that the test problems or presentations could have been leaked beforehand, how could anyone know what the content of the consultation call on the day of the event would be?

But this was not enough.

Now that I had a lump like Choi Sung-chul on me, I needed to make sure that there would be no more unnecessary noise by clearly settling things.

• Th, but the thing that I wanted to confirm was……

It was time to land the finishing blow.

“There is one unnatural thing.”

• Yes? Wh, what do you mean?

“In the first place, why did Mr. Oh Gi-tae’s father suddenly have an accident?”

• ……Yes?

“According to what you said, your father had recently had surgery, but he was not in a condition where he couldn’t move on his own if he had his walker. It’s hard to believe that he would suddenly fall and have a fall accident just because there was no caregiver.”

• Well, maybe it was dark at night, or the floor was slippery or something? Ah. Then can we claim that the nursing home was negligent for having such a lack of safety……

“No, that’s probably not it.”

I cut off Oh Gi-tae's words and took out my laptop from my bag.

I typed the name of the nursing home that the client had mentioned in the web browser.

The homepage of the nursing home in question quickly appeared on the screen.

“This nursing home advertises in the introduction on their homepage that ‘This facility strictly adheres to the facility standards and staff placement standards for elderly medical welfare facilities according to the Enforcement Rules of the Senior Welfare Act.’”

This time, I searched for ‘facility standards and staff placement standards for elderly medical welfare facilities.’

A fairly large table appeared, but only the following was needed right now.

Install night lights in the hallway.

Install ramps on the stairs.

The floor should be made of a soft, non-slip material.

Have at least one caregiver for every 2.3 residents.

“If you look at the facility photos posted on the homepage or the staff employment status, they seem to be following these standards well. It doesn’t make sense that it was because it was dark since there are night lights, and although it can’t be confirmed from the photos if the floor is non-slip, it’s also funny to assume that they used a weird material for the floor while following all of the other regulations.”

• Th, then why did my father.

“If there’s a problem, there’s a high possibility that it’s with the walker itself that he slipped with. Please try to remember carefully. Was there anything special that your father said about his life at the nursing home recently?”

Then, I added slightly.

“For example, if he had fought with someone, or had a conflict…….”

• Ah, ahh!

Oh Gi-tae shouted as if he had been struck by lightning.

• Th, come to think of it, there was! About 2 or 3 days before the accident, he said that there was a rude caregiver, and he was clashing with him all the time…….

“That’s important testimony. Ask your father for the name of that person, and then contact him and let's hear what he has to say. Also, ask the nursing home to check the condition of the walker and to view the CCTV footage of the accident.”

• I, I did ask about the CCTV once, but the nursing home said that they couldn’t show it due to internal regulations.

“That’s illegal. According to Article 35 of the Personal Information Protection Act, if you request to view your own recorded footage, the person who installed the CCTV cannot refuse. Ask again, and if they refuse again after you record the call, submit it to the police station.”

-……Thank you! Thank you! It feels like I can see a way out!

The client’s voice, who had found a new path, was bright.

He thanked me several times, saying that he had never thought of that, and then he hung up the phone, saying that he was going to ask his father and meet that caregiver right away.

‘That guy is actually the culprit.’

In the original story, in the midst of a long and tedious legal battle, the caregiver, who was unable to bear the guilt, revealed the truth to the client’s side, and the situation was reversed.

After having a fight with Oh Gi-tae’s father every day, the caregiver had a grudge.

So he intentionally swapped the wheels of the walker with broken ones.

He had thought that he would just fall and land on his butt, and he was going to laugh at him, but he had been at a loss when he was injured so badly that he had to have major surgery.

From the start, I had known the whole story of the incident.

The reason why I had brought up the possibility of safety standards was just to persuade the client.

If I found that caregiver and got a confession, the main point of the case would no longer be the tricky ‘proving the nursing home’s negligence.’

There was also a way to get money from the nursing home, the employer, using the caregiver’s direct tort liability or Article 756 of the Civil Act, which was the employer liability.

It wasn't a difficult fight since I had a solid piece of evidence, which was the caregiver’s confession.

Since he was such an impulsive person with a weak mentality who would confess out of guilt, I would be able to get a testimony from him with just a bit of pressure.

‘In the original story, he spoke too late, so the CCTV footage was gone, and the walker had been thrown away, so they had a hard time finding evidence.’

But it would be different this time.

Because I had advised him to quickly secure evidence.

‘I also learned about the CCTV and the Personal Information Protection Act from a security guard at my old company in my previous life.’

In short.

It was a solved case.

“Well, then.”

I finally took my eyes off the memo pad and raised my head.

“Do you have anything to say?”

Then, I made eye contact with Choi Sung-chul, who was looking at me as if he had been hit in the face.

“Uh, th, uhh…….”

After stammering for a long time, Choi Sung-chul barely managed to spit out one word.

“W, wonderful…….

It was a declaration of complete defeat.