Query from advocate brotheren
R.Ramachandran
(Querist) 08 February 2012
This query is : Resolved
I am opening this thread for discussion by experts with a view to arrive at a consensus on the question:
1. What is a commercial query.
2. Whether a query from an Advocate bro\theren, which obviously is to render professional service to his clients will fall under 'commercial query'.
BACKGROUND FOR THE ABOVE QUERY:
To day, there was a query from an Advocate seeking advice/experts views, in regard to a case being handled by him for his client.
Mr. V.R.Shroff (after quoting the profile of the Advocate querist) wanted to know from other experts "whether the querist Advocate deserve Answer from LCI Experts?
The points that has to be considered is:
1. What is a commercial query?
2. Whether the query raised by an Advocate bretheren to render professional service his client would fall under the category of Commercial query?
And what is/or should be our Policy in attending to such types of queries?
Mr. Arunagiri opinied that:-
We can help the aggrieved person. If any advocate wants a help from us, let him contact through email. Get the services, by paying the fees, fees may be paid by online.
Mr. Barman, was having the following view:
I slightly disagree with Mr ARUNAGIRI as being a ready reckoner for professional advocates is not what for we actually spend our time. If any advocate asks for help then he should also contribute his bit by resolving queries of others. He simply can not surface and ask queries to solve cases of their own. I support what Mr Shroff has tried to say and request my other friends to make their opinion clear and loud in this topic. I am in against of helping professional advocates though exception could be made for freshers.
Mr. Khaleel Ahmed expressed that Any body can seek legal advise through this forum. Query may be commercial or non commercial.
Mr. Sudhir Kumar said:
If a client has come and paid fee his commercial interests are served. But some advocates are really dedicated and want to help their client the best. I believe this queriest has understood limitation of his intellect and does intend to use others brain. All of us have the limitation of their intellect and greater successful men are those who can understand it and are able to identify the field where others may be knowing better than him. When god has taken incarnation still he needed help of mortals. So the god has not allowed perfect knowledge even to himself.
It is not he but all other members who get benefitted be the varied views of intellectuals. When one has decided to share knowledge on charity then it should be beyond our thought as how best the queriest uses them.
Some litigants themselves make query and get benefitted and some of them may be befitting in the trade or service. On the same time there are non-serious queriests who come to ask how best to hide their crime and are undeterred by the advise. Some of them do not like advise of not going to court and seek extra-judicial remedy. That is not the problems of those replying.
So I may be permitted to agree with Mr Arnunagiri and to say that we should allow this query.
Mr. Ramachandran said: By taking one issue of "Anonymous query", we reached some consensus and resolved that issue.
Similarly, the point which Mr. Shroff has raised here is quite interesting and the views of Mr. Barman and Arunagiri are worth considering. But this requires a separate discussion by the experts to arrive at a consensus.
I feel that we should follow the dictum of solving one issue after another. Thus as a second issue (after 'Anonymous') let us deal with this issue.
Till such time we arrive at a consensus amongst ourselves, I feel that we should answer the query so long as it is not an "Anonymous" query - unless the query is out and out from a Corporate or a Commercial query.
Deepak Nair said: I endorse the views of Mr.Sudhir and Mr.Ramachandran.
Mr.Sajid himself has stated that he is an advocate and he needs advise to sole a case handled by him. What I feel that this is the site were not only the litigants, but also a number of advocates get benifited, mainly because of this EXPERTS section. As stated by Mr.Sudhir, the querist has expressed his limitation and he is in need of help/guidance and, in my view, it is not at all wrong if the experts help a lawyer who is in need of advise to handle his case. I sincerely say that I too have availed some guidance from the learned experts for such matters which were not faced by me personally. That is the reason why i decided to contribute to the experts section. Therefore in my view, there is no wrong in answering this issue.
Mr. Ajay sethi is of the view that we should resolve the legal queries raised by other lawyers on this site. if any advocate needs a second opinion and wants help from us no harm in advising him .
Keeping the above background, other experts may contribute their views so that a consensus can be arrived on the above two issues.
I request Mr. SHROFF to take on from here to collate the views of other experts, and then to communicate the 'consensus'.
ajay sethi
(Expert) 08 February 2012
1)to my mind a commercial query would be queries raised by corporates . companies can afford to spend on legal fees .
if we start giving corporates free legal advice then no company would go to lawyers for opinions.
2)a lawyer on other hnad stands on different footing . on many occassions we do discuss tricky legal issues with our colleagues . LCI offers lawyers a platform to ask their colleagues an opinion on complex legal issues .
for instance
i had raised a query on res judicata as I wanted a second opinion from my fellow colleagues in LCI on a case i was handling .
Mr Makkad/ MR Ramchandran were kind enough to give their inputs .
i reiterate there is no harm in giving replies to legal issues raised by Advocates .
M/s. Y-not legal services
(Expert) 08 February 2012
nice observation ramacahndran sir., also thank you for starting this thread..
my opinion is, asking help from other advocates is not wrong.. also as a brother advocates we can help him., even collecting fees for that may be too much..
but., some advocates want to clear their doubts in the name of "anonymous"., i just hate that.
one of our expert discussed with me., that "tom, why you always being rude when an advocate using anonymous option?. if that advocate asked his doubt openly mean., his/ her client what will think about him/her. [client may think like our advocate dont have knowledge]" so whats wrong here while an advocate posting query as anonymous?..
i gave sufficient reply to him.. even our expert not ready to accept my thought..
anonymous option only for protect them from unwanted problems., but our advocates used it for them prestige..
am also waiting for other members's opinions..
-tom-
R.Ramachandran
(Querist) 08 February 2012
Dear Mr. Sethi,
I fully agree with your views that we should be forthcoming in helping our fellow Advocates whenever they need legal inputs. BUT HERE IS A CATCH.
The catch is we do not have any mechanism to be sure that the querist is really an Advocate! For instance, even a out and out commercial query can be turned into a permissible query - all that one needs to do is pose as an Advocate - then post the query as though it relates to your client.
This possibility we have to guard against. How to check?
ajay sethi
(Expert) 08 February 2012
Mr Ramchandran
there is always scope for misuse .LCI as administrators registers members .
they can ferret out queries made by corporates .
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 08 February 2012
I also do not mind helping other advocates but what I meant to say those queries by advocates should be avoided who appear in this site only to resolve their own cases.
If someone is so regular to take help of ours then he should also help others like us.
Else those selfish queries should be avoided at all costs.
DEFENSE ADVOCATE.-firmaction@g
(Expert) 08 February 2012
There can not be any demarcation so let there be third section for PAID QUERIES. Those who want more specific answers may to this third section with adm and respondent sharing the fee.
Parthasarathi Loganathan
(Expert) 08 February 2012
Sorting out mutual doubts related within the general ethics of the profession is not a crime. I recall my classmate friend (a famous surgeon) Dr. Vijay Immanuvel rendering his service at Mukunda Hospital in the North East even floated a facebook group and shares all his professional secrets openly for the benefit of his fellow doctors community across the globe. In turn, it has only benefited his patients to a great extent. We can also follow the suite to uphold the spirit of our professional services rendered at any capacity. This is only my humble opinion.
Advocate. Arunagiri
(Expert) 08 February 2012
My opinion is let the advocates send their queries to the experts as PM or email. They want reply for their query.
I do understand the advocates are asking queries representing their clients.
A = Client
B = Advocate
C = LCI team
A asks B, B Asks C. It can be treated A asks C.
When an advocates posts a query, it seems to be a academic query.
Like every criminal case is having some element of civil nature, every query will have some element of academic nature.
My intention is to help the aggrieved person. At the same time I dont want to avoid the advocates, that is I have suggested the advocates to send PM or Email.
C. P. CHUGH
(Expert) 08 February 2012
Dear All,
Knowledge Spreads by Sharing it. I donot mind sharing whatever knowledge I have and at the same time I am not hesitant to seek advice and guidance from others. Let us not squeeze ourselves so much lest the utility of Forum like LCI looses its importance. No one is insisting any one to answer, if he himself is not willing to do so. If an Advocate brother, howsoever, Seasoned or a fresher is in doubt and wants certain clarifications, let us not discourage him. All of us know, many of us would not have matters, so frequently asked for under the querry section, relating to their personal life. Let me be frank, I an exception and whatever I have tried to find out about 138 is with regards to my personal cases. Being an advocate practiciting tax matters, i am not so updated with criminal procedure code and offence u/s 138, but otherwise I would love to share whateever knowledge i have in tax matters.
V R SHROFF
(Expert) 09 February 2012
My personal opinion is:
Why we Advocates should not take advantage of sharing our knowledge, and clearing our doubt, and getting help from our brother Advocates.
We will harm ourselves, if we decide not to answer query of our brother Advocate.
.In fact, we should go in great detail to help each other, and our reply should be in details, that directly help him solving his problem.
As a Captain of our team, I cannot decide as per my wish. I am basically representative of all, and will act as per your desire. IT IS A TEAM WORK
[whether one like it or not, all have to unitedly follow what we decide]
So now after receiving individual opinion of all experts who answer this query within 5 days, We will have our final decision. Till then, for a week, I believe, no harm continuing to answer Advocate's Query.
Adv Shroff
09-02-2012
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 09 February 2012
I have been always of help to juniors.
Exchange of knowledge is no bad but it's
exploitation is ???????
Sailesh Kumar Shah
(Expert) 09 February 2012
We should replies to legal issues raised by Advocates.
"Gyan batne sa badhata hai............." and moreover, no one is perfect. In future, any expert including me needs to take expert opinion.
V R SHROFF
(Expert) 09 February 2012
To:Dear Mr. Sethi, From: Shri R Ramchandran.
I fully agree with your views that we should be forthcoming in helping our fellow Advocates whenever they need legal inputs. BUT HERE IS A CATCH.
The catch is we do not have any mechanism to be sure that the querist is really an Advocate! For instance, even a out and out commercial query can be turned into a permissible query - all that one needs to do is pose as an Advocate - then post the query as though it relates to your client.
This possibility we have to guard against. How to check?
I have Answer: I will try sending by Answer not in this Public forum, but by sending PM to selected Important Experts, who regularly reply here.
I may chat with those selected, and we may come to amicable solution, that will probably guard against."
Pl wait till I get some time to post you the detailed plan . Pl go thru, give your opinion, whether it is practical, or there are any chances , risk, of it's failure.
Till then, we will continue reply queries raised by Advocates.
Adv Shroff
venkatesh Rao
(Expert) 09 February 2012
Because very many experts logs into this question, I take the opportunity of posting a query which is still unresolved. I have met many senior counsels who tried to answer but not to my satisfaction-in the sense, constitutionally and legally correct answer.
Can the Supreme Court, while disposing of a case, direct that the judgment now being delivered shall not be a precedent?
My point is when a judgemnt is delivered by the supreme court, by operation of Art. 141 it becomes binding ipso facto to one and all. Which Article empowers high court to declare a particular judgemnt not to be precedent?
