This is our most successful criminal defense case this year. First, let's talk about the outcome. In the first instance, the client was found to have a superstitious relationship and was sentenced to two years in prison. In the second instance, we acted as an agent and reduced the sentence by eleven months. Based on the actual thirteen months of imprisonment, the client was sentenced to criminal law, commonly known as "actual reimbursement".

Let's take another look at the timeline:

On February 20, 2025, the second instance court received the appeal materials and entered the second instance trial stage.

On March 25, 2025, the second instance court notified us that we could submit defense opinions.

On April 3, 2025, we collected a large amount of evidence materials and submitted them to the court along with defense opinions. In order to ensure that the court received the materials, we sent them online via email and then submitted them on the spot offline at the Guangzhou Provincial Hospital. The combination of the two methods ensured that everything was foolproof.

On April 14, 2025, we requested a face-to-face communication with the judge regarding the case. The judge stated that our defense was well written and there was no need for further face-to-face communication. The result would be available within three days.

Afterwards, we learned that the judge made a second instance criminal judgment on April 14th, sentencing him to 13 months in prison, with the sentence expiring on April 17th, which is three days later.

On the morning of April 17, 2025, we received a client at the detention center. She was holding a certificate of release from prison, crying, hugging us, and shouting excitedly. On that day, I personally took her to the subway station in Hong Kong, and watching her board the subway in the city gave us complete peace of mind.

During the two month trial period of the second instance, we helped her reduce her sentence by 11 months and achieved a work result that was impossible in the eyes of the former prosecutor and judge.

In fact, only 11 days after the submission of the defense opinion, the court made a ruling to reduce the sentence!

For us, this is an impossible outcome because when we took over, it was already the second instance, and by the time the second instance officially entered the trial process, the client had already been detained for over 12 months. The court could only make a judgment based on the total number of months, so the best outcome we could get from the second instance was a 13 month judgment, which was based on actual expenses!

What exactly is this case, and how did we bring it to fruition and achieve such a good result? Let's talk slowly.

The charge involved in this case is drug smuggling, which was found by my junior brother on a certain learning platform. The client involved in the case is his relative, and he initially wanted me to meet him because he heard that the first instance verdict had been reached and she wanted to appeal. She wanted us to find out if there was a verdict and how long it had been.

Why don't the family members even know about the first instance verdict? Didn't they hire a lawyer? In fact, they hired four lawyers in the first instance, but none of them could come up with a good plan. So they believed in the so-called relationship and listened to others' arrangements, dismissing all the defense lawyers in the first instance! During the first instance trial, the client defended themselves in court, only helplessly pleading with the judge, confessing to the facts of the case and the application of the law throughout the entire process without any resistance.

After the meeting was completed, we only received two pieces of information with no practical value: the first instance verdict sentenced us to two years in prison, which has been appealed. The reason for the appeal is that the number of times the verdict determined that we carried drugs was different from the actual situation, and it was determined multiple times.

So the start was very unfavorable. Before accepting the commission, we did not read any case files or the first instance judgment, and the only information was the customer's oral account of the "smuggling" process.

Fortunately, the family insisted on hiring a lawyer to defend her in the second trial, with two goals: first, to reduce her sentence and preferably allow her to return to Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year; Secondly, even if the sentence cannot be reduced, find a way to keep her in check and not send her to prison.

We also explained to the family the difficulty of reducing the sentence, because the first instance was sentenced within the statutory sentence, and the second instance had every reason to uphold the original verdict. Moreover, we did not have any materials and could only know the specific situation of the case after reviewing the case file in the second instance. Fortunately, the second goal is relatively easy to achieve, as a longer case trial time may make it possible to achieve this goal.

After listening to our analysis, the client has decided to entrust us with the second instance defense work.

We are a team handling cases, with at least two lawyers involved in each case, and this case is no exception. One of the lawyers is responsible for tracking the progress of the case throughout the process. She maintains a weekly phone frequency and contacts the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court, the second instance court, to ensure that we can obtain case information and case files as soon as the case arrives at the Provincial High Court.

Finally, we have received news from the second instance court that the case has been assigned to a judge. So we immediately made an appointment with the judge team for the grading time and received all the case files on the third day.

After grading, we were completely stunned. During the meeting, the client firmly told me that the prosecutor had made a mistake in smuggling drugs and had increased the number of times. But the fact is, we have created a very detailed statement analysis comparison table and found that the customer's statement is very detailed. The transcript records the number of times she admitted to smuggling drugs, the quantity carried each time, the specific date, and so on.

That is to say, the reasons for the second instance appeal mentioned by the client do not actually exist!