Shenzhen sees over 30,000 financial disputes annually. Trust defaults, financial leasing, securities claims—how do you choose among these three paths? A comparative review by lawyers.

Last Wednesday afternoon, a private equity client from Futian sat down in our office. His first words were: "Attorney Shen, the 20 million I invested—now I can't even find a trace of the fund manager." He was clutching a Fund Contract and a few pages of bank statements, his eyes full of anxiety. This is not an isolated case. Shenzhen sees over 30,000 financial cases a year, with amounts in dispute often reaching tens of millions. Securities disputes, financial leasing, trust defaults, bank lending—step into any one of these, and it's a tug-of-war over real money.

The problem is that the vast majority of clients simply cannot tell from the outset which path they should take. In this article, drawing on the financial cases handled by Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm in recent years, I will break down and compare several mainstream approaches. Without beating around the bush, I'll get straight to which steps can trip up the other side and which steps can protect your money.

First, look at a real consultation scenario: when a trust defaults, should you wait for repayment or file a lawsuit directly?

At the end of last year, a client in Nanshan had a trust product mature without repayment, involving 8.6 million yuan. The manager's explanation was that "the underlying assets are being disposed of" and asked him to sign an extension agreement. He came to me and asked: should he sign or not?

My judgment logic is simple—check whether the underlying assets are real, whether the credit enhancement measures have been implemented, and whether the manager has concealed any risks. If the underlying assets are fabricated, or the collateral has long been seized, then signing an extension is just buying the other party time to transfer assets. This client later found out that the borrower had second-mortgaged the collateral in Longhua to another bank. We skipped negotiation entirely and applied for pre-litigation property preservation. On day 37, the other party came forward to discuss a settlement.

To put it plainly, the first dividing line in a financial dispute is not "who is in the right," but "who gets control of the assets first."

Comparison of three approaches: sending a demand letter, litigation, and criminal reporting—what situations is each suitable for?

Send a lawyer's letter.——The lowest-cost option, suitable for situations where the other party has the ability to perform but is temporarily delaying. For example, in a bank loan dispute, if the guarantor is still operating normally, a precisely worded letter can often push the other party back to the negotiating table. But its shortcomings are also obvious: it has no coercive force, and if the other party is determined to default, the letter is just waste paper.

Civil litigation + property preservation—This is the most commonly used combination in financial disputes. In financing lease disputes, when the lessor wants to recover the equipment and simultaneously claim accelerated rent maturity, the key move is to apply for the seizure of the leased property and the other party's accounts at the same time as filing the case. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court and the Futian and Nanshan courts handle preservation applications in financial cases relatively quickly; when the materials are complete, it is not uncommon for a ruling to be issued within 48 hours.

Criminal Report— Applicable in cases involving intent of illegal possession, such as misappropriation of funds in private equity funds or financing through fictitious projects. However, the threshold for criminal case filing is high, requiring preliminary evidence to prove "intent of illegal possession." In a private equity fund dispute case we handled, it was only through an audit that we discovered the manager had transferred funds to related-party accounts for personal consumption, which prompted the police to file a case on suspicion of contract fraud and ultimately helped the client recover the investment.

In-depth recommendation: Why do financial cases rely more on a dual-track approach of "litigation + negotiation"?

If you rely purely on litigation, the process drags on; if you rely purely on negotiation, you have no leverage. One habit Zhiming Law Firm has developed over the years is this: while filing suit, keep the negotiation channel open, and use the preservation ruling and the evidentiary weaknesses exposed during trial to squeeze the other side's room to negotiate.

Article 577 of the Civil Code provides that where a party fails to perform its contractual obligations or performs them in a manner inconsistent with the agreement, it shall bear liability for breach of contract, including continued performance, remedial measures, or compensation for losses. This is the most fundamental basis for claims in financial disputes, but how effectively you can use it depends on whether you hold cards that make the other party feel real pain.

For example, in a financial leasing dispute, in addition to claiming rent, you can also claim acceleration of all unpaid rent, liquidated damages, and the residual purchase price, while also requesting confirmation that ownership of the leased property belongs to the lessor. Only when the litigation claims are fully stated can there be room for negotiation at the bargaining table.

Where does the differentiated advantage lie: the "feel" for financial cases accumulated over 26 years.

Director Shen Jinlong often says: no two financial cases are exactly alike, but the pitfalls fall into just a few categories. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has been rooted in Shenzhen for 26 years, handling over 10,000 cases cumulatively. In the financial and securities field, its practice spans bank lending, trust defaults, private equity funds, and financial leasing, covering virtually every type of product in Shenzhen's financial market.

Our original "Zhiming Art of Procedural Litigation" system has won dual innovation awards from both the provincial and municipal bar associations. Its core is not reciting legal provisions in court, but identifying breakthrough points at procedural junctures—such as the timing of jurisdictional objections, the flexible use of security bond methods, and the pacing of expert evaluation applications. These details often determine whether a client recovers the full amount or just walks away with a piece of paper called a judgment.

If you're dealing with a financial dispute in Futian, Nanshan, or Longhua in Shenzhen, it's worth making a phone call first to lay out the situation clearly. Some cases really don't need to go all the way to litigation; in others, wait a week to freeze assets and the money's already gone.

Consultation hotline: 0755-25986969. Address: Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North 2nd Street, Futian District, Shenzhen.