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Volume 3,Issue 9

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26 October 2025

The Dilemma of Refunding Illegal Fiduciary Fees and the Construction of Adjudication Strategies

Xindi Wang1 You Tang1 Xiao Zhong1 Jie Xiong1 Xiaojia Wang1 Zhanhong Wu1
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1 Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing 400000, China
LNE 2025 , 3(9), 142–148; https://doi.org/10.18063/LNE.v3i9.972
© 2025 by the Author. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Disputes over the return of fees caused by unlawful entrustment appear frequently in judicial practice. Proper handling of such disputes is crucial to the coordination of a rule-of-law society and a humanistic society. Based on an empirical analysis of judgment documents from paid retainer fee return cases and literature analysis, it is found that there are significant differences in how judges, lawyers, and the public attribute responsibility for retainer fees. Judicial decision paths are diverse, with the advantages and disadvantages of each path intertwined. It is difficult to take into account both legal effects and social effects. Given the above practical dilemmas, and based on the results of empirical research combined with theoretical study and analyses, this essay proposes solutions for different types of unlawful cases from the perspectives of legislative basis, legal application, the parties’ subjective malice, and social harm. This approach aims to achieve a balance between a society based on the rule of law and a humanistic society.

Keywords
Illegal entrustment
Public order and morals
Fee refund
Empirical research
Dilemma of adjudication
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