Suits: A Lawyer Surviving TV Chaos

Afternoon coffee arrived, and Martin clapped his hands to let his colleagues take a break. There were only a few people here, so it was impossible to finish off a hundred cupcakes. Martin let everyone pick a few flavors they liked, then put the rest on the counter in the office pantry for colleagues to help themselves. It was like earning goodwill.

Each cupcake cost four dollars, so a hundred would be four hundred dollars. Adding the taxi fare and labor costs plus tips, Martin directly gave max a six-hundred-dollar cash check.

"Actually, what Caroline said is right. If you're willing, these cupcakes could sell for seven dollars each in Manhattan."

"Ever since some jerk offered me seven dollars in middle school to give him a 'good time,' I've been allergic to the number seven."

Max always smiled when she said these things, making it hard to tell if she was being serious or not.

Martin looked at her with some pity but didn't continue to persuade her further.

Don't judge others' hardships; don't advise them to be kind!

They were all adults, capable of taking responsibility for their own life choices. Too much advice would only make people annoyed.

Max had to rush back to work at the restaurant, so she just visited Martin's new office before leaving. Before she left, she threw out a bold statement.

"Martin, when you have time, let me experience how fun it would be to roll around on your desk!"

Martin grimaced.

All talk, come on if you dare!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks later, Martin returned to Island City Prison with a pile of documents and met Amanda, who looked even more haggard than before.

"Even if you're in hell, you should still take care of yourself."

Martin frowned. "After all, the end of the world hasn't come yet, has it?"

Amanda didn't speak, just shook her head blankly.

Martin sighed and took a document out of his bag. "Let's get down to business. Yesterday, under the witness of the presiding judge of the New York District Court, I negotiated the terms of the plea agreement with the prosecutor handling your case."

Upon hearing this, Amanda suddenly raised her head angrily and glared at Martin. "Plea? You said you were my lawyer, that you would help me!"

"Don't get upset, it's good news." Martin placed the document in front of Amanda.

"The New York District Attorney decided to charge you with five counts, including vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving. If you sign the plea agreement, you will serve thirty-one months in Stoney Prison."

Amanda could hardly believe her ears. "Mr. Scott, are you sure it's thirty-one months and not thirty-one years?"

Martin nodded. "There were five eyewitnesses who saw you hit and kill Sokya with your car, so even if we go to trial, there's no way to plead not guilty. This is the shortest sentence I could negotiate for you."

"Also, if you behave well in prison, you can apply for parole within a year, and there shouldn't be any problems."

"Are you sure I'm not dreaming right now?" For the first time, Amanda's eyes shone with hope.

Martin tilted his head. "Just sign this plea agreement in front of you, and this will become reality!"

Amanda lowered her head and stared blankly at the cover of the document. After a long while, she slowly lifted her thin hands to open it, reading each word carefully, afraid of missing any detail.

Martin didn't rush her, idly staring at the upper-left corner of the prison visiting room where a spider was diligently working.

After an unknown amount of time, Amanda suddenly burst into tears, clutching the plea agreement.

Martin glanced over, pulled out some tissues from his briefcase, and handed them to her.

"Just a reminder, I didn't bring a second copy of the agreement. If your tears stain the paper, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to leave."

Upon hearing this, Amanda quickly placed the agreement on the table and wiped her face with the tissue.

"Thank you... I thought my life was over... I don't know what to say... You saved me."

Martin didn't feel proud because of his client's gratitude. After all, on the other side was a living person's life.

Although Amanda's boyfriend had an obsessive need for control and was quite annoying, he didn't deserve to die.

But as a lawyer, he couldn't guarantee the interests of his client while also considering the feelings of the other side.

After guiding Amanda through signing the plea agreement, Martin double-checked everything before carefully placing it back in his briefcase.

Next came another document. "This is the civil liability compensation plan. Since the case has been classified as a traffic accident, most of it will be covered by your insurance company. Look over the remaining part and see if you can accept it. If not, you can file an objection."

Amanda took it and looked. The miscellaneous fees added up to a total of $830,000, and she only needed to pay $150,000 herself.

"Mr. Scott, I may not have that much money. Can I apply for a litigation loan?"

Martin wasn't concerned. After all, Amanda was still a college student, her family was relatively well-off, and her usual income was just pocket money from her parents or a supplementary credit card. Without a loan, she wouldn't be able to pay the compensation.

Some might ask, since her family is doing alright, why not let her parents help?

This touches upon the most powerful and disliked department in the U.S.—the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).

Let's take Amanda's situation as an example.

First, Amanda's parents would need to sell their tax-avoidance investment stocks to get cash. During this process, they would have to pay 28% federal tax, 8.8% New York state tax, about 3% stock market commission, stamp duty, etc.

Then, after handing over the cash to Amanda, they would also have to pay a 14% gift tax.

In other words, for Amanda's parents to help pay the $150,000 compensation, they would actually have to spend nearly $220,000.

If Amanda chose a litigation loan, not only could she repay it in installments to reduce pressure, but paying it all off within five years would only cost her around $180,000.

The choice was clear!

Martin always felt that the reason American parents and adult children weren't as close was entirely due to those tax specialists with command over two aircraft carriers and thirty F-22 fighter jets meddling!

Of course, Martin's legal fees also required Amanda to take out a loan to pay. In fact, it wasn't too much—just over twenty thousand dollars.

After all, the appearance fee for that neurobiologist was five thousand dollars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How did you manage to do it?"

As soon as Martin returned to the office, Priya left her cubicle and rushed to his office.

"weren't you fully involved?" Martin countered, loosening his tie and gulping water.

"I mean the prosecutor!" Priya's eyes were full of admiration. "He could have charged her with manslaughter. Why did he downgrade it to a traffic offense?"

Martin finished drinking, threw away the cup, sat on the sofa, and deliberately made his voice hoarse. "I gave him an offer he couldn't refuse!"

"Holding a gun to the prosecutor's head is a federal felony."

Priya immediately showed off her status as a die-hard fan of *The Godfather*.

Martin instantly relaxed, slouching on the sofa like a lazy guy. "Not with a gun, but with dignity!"

"Dignity?" Priya indicated she didn't understand at all.

Oh well, she was her friend's younger sister after all.

"Think carefully. Who doesn't want this case exposed right now?"

"You mean the prosecutor?" Priya suddenly realized. "We overturned the second-degree murder charge he previously set with evidence. Even if Amanda is convicted of manslaughter in court, exposing it to the media would cause him to lose face completely."

"Half right," Martin replied noncommittally.

"Who else?" Priya stood there deep in thought, then seemed to think of something and looked at Martin on the sofa with shock.

"BMW?"

"Bingo!" Martin snapped his fingers with a smile.

"But... but why? Isn't BMW's new system problem-free?"

Martin shook his head. "Whether there's a problem or not isn't important. The key is that this system cost BMW hundreds of millions of euros and five years of development. It's the core system that will be standard equipment for all future models, and it's only been on the market for a year. How would they want our case exposed? Especially in New York, the economic and news center of North America..."

"So you blackmailed them?"

"Not blackmail, but to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings between our firm and BMW, we proactively sent them a legal risk warning and PR suggestions."

"And then?"

"Last week, BMW's Vice President of Marketing for North America came, expressed appreciation for the efforts of the New York police to maintain local security, and announced that next month they would donate five 3 Series cars as official vehicles."

"What does the police have to do with this case?"

"The New York District Attorney's Office is an independent judicial body and cannot accept corporate donations."

"Dirty politics!"

"There's nothing clean in the adult world."

(End of Chapter)