How to change my lawyer

1.                 First Step-At the very outset I must express my sympathy with you for the inconvenience and harassment you are suffering in dealing with your lawyer. First and foremost, try not to antagonise your lawyer. So, if he's not picking up your calls, try again and have details of the call records. If after a few calls he/she still doesn't pick up your call, no harm in making a personal visit to Rajasthan where you case is pending and request him/her to do the needful to your case. You still things to not move then moved to the second step.

2.                 Second step-write a proper  letter in a sort of official language requesting him to do the needful as previous calls and a personal visit has not yielded desired results. Keep a copy of the said letter for your record. Send this letter through postal department speed post only. No courier please since the courts except the postal department receipts. Keep that postal department receipts safely tagged to your letter and after two to three days, track their speed post through the website of India Post by putting your speed post number. Take a printout of the track record of speed post delivery from the website or alternatively Copy the speed post track record, paste it in Word file and take a printout. This becomes proof that you have sent the letter request to your lawyer for the needful to be done along with the speed post track record. 

3.                 Third step- If still things do not move, write another letter addressing it to your lawyer with a copy under intimation to your lawyer to bar Council of the state/bar Council of India for necessary action to be done by your lawyer.

4.                 Hopefully by then, he/she as an advocate will realise that you mean business and which side the wind is blowing. Either he/she will do the necessary work on your case or return your case that you.

5.                 Lastly if still things are not moving, you can file the RTI with the concerned court to dig out the details of the petition and other subsequent documents eg:-for removing of effect etc have been filed by your advocate or not. Then with all the proofs i.e details obtained through RTI and the copies of the letter written to advocate, you may choose the option of complaining the matter to the bar Council of State/bar Council of India under advocate act of 1961 against your lawyer. In fact in one of the case, my own lawyer was not updating me about a case pending in the State consumer Forum. I filed an RTI. I not only got the copy of documents/petition filed by my advocate but also what was filed by the opposite party since my interest was direct in the case. I had asked information as to how may times my lawyer had appeared. I had asked as to if at any time  case was adjourned due to non-representation by either the parties. I got all my answers by virtue of asking certified to copy of the court order sheet in which everything was recorded as to which all dates my lawyer appeared on the lawyer of opposite party appeared on an appeared, what decision was given on any particular date by the Forum for the next date including extension of the date sort by my lawyer which he had never disclosed me otherwise.

6.                 Incidentally, based on your version alone, it appears that your advocate has violated rule number 15 and 24 of duty towards client under the standard of professional conduct and etiquette by virtue of rules made by bar Council of India under section49(1)(c) of the Advocates Act, 1961. Given below are the rules governing advocates i.e duty towards client. Please go through these. It will always help you not only in dealing with your lawyers but will also make you aware of your rights by virtue of these duties of the lawyers towards the client. 

RULES GOVERNING ADVOCATES

Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette

[Rules made by the Bar Council of India under section 49(1)(c) of the Advocates Act, 1961]

SECTION II- DUTY TO THE CLIENT

11. An advocate is bound to accept any brief in the courts or tribunals or before any other authority in or before which he proposes to practice at a fee consistent with his standing at the Bar and the nature of the case. Special circumstances may justify his refusal to accept a particular brief.

12. An advocate shall not ordinarily withdraw from engagements, once accepted, without sufficient cause and unless reasonable and sufficient notice is given to the client. Upon his withdrawal from a case, he shall refund such part of the fee as has not been earned.

13. An advocate should not accept a brief or appear in a case in which he has reason to believe that he will be a witness, and if being engaged in a case, it becomes apparent that he is a witness on a material question of fact, he should not continue to appear as an advocate if he can retire without jeopardizing his client’s interests.

14. An advocate shall, at the commencement of his engagement and during thecontinuance thereof, make all such full and frank disclosures to his client relating to his connection with the parties and any interest in or about the controversy as are likely to affect his client’s judgment in either engaging him or continuing the engagement.

15. It shall be the duty of an advocate fearlessly to uphold the interests of his client by all fair and honourable means without regard to any unpleasant consequences to himself or any other. He shall defend a person accused of a crime regardless of his personal opinion as to the guilt of the accused, bearing in mind that his loyalty is to the law which requires that no man should be convicted without adequate evidence.

16. An advocate appearing for the prosecution of a criminal trial shall so conduct the prosecution that it does not lead to conviction of the innocent. The suppression of material capable of establishing the innocence of the accused shall be scrupulously avoided.

17. An advocate shall not, directly or indirectly, commit a breach of the obligations imposed by section 126 of the Indian Evidence Act.

18. An advocate shall not, at any time, be a party to fomenting litigation.

19. An advocate shall not act on the instructions of any person other than his client or his authorized agent. 

20. An advocate shall not stipulate for a fee contingent on the results of litigation or agree to share the proceeds thereof.

21. An advocate shall not buy or traffic in or stipulate for or agree to receive any share or interest in any actionable claim. Nothing in this rule shall apply to stock, shares and debentures of government securities, or to any instruments which are, for the time being, by law or custom, negotiable or to any mercantile document of title to goods.

22. An advocate shall not, directly or indirectly, bid for or purchase, either in his own name or in any other name, for his own benefit or for the benefit of any other person, any property sold in the execution of decree or order in any suit, appeal or other proceeding in which he was in any way professionally engaged. This prohibition, however, does not prevent an advocate from bidding for or purchasing for his client any property which his client may himself legally bid for or purchase, provided the advocate is expressly authorized in writing inthis behalf.

 23. An advocate shall not adjust fee payable to him by his client against his own personal liability to the client, which liability does not arise in the course of his employment as an advocate.  

24. An advocate shall not do anything whereby he abuses or takes advantage of the confidence reposed in him by his client.

25. An advocate should keep accounts of the client’s money entrusted to him, and the accounts should show the amounts received from the client or on his behalf, the expenses incurred for him and the debits made on account of fees with respective dates and all other necessary particulars.

26. Where moneys are received from or on account of a client, the entries in the

accounts should contain a reference as to whether the amounts have been received for fees or expenses, and during the course of the proceedings, no advocate shall, except with the consent in writing of the client concerned, be at liberty to divert any portion of the expenses towards fees.

27. Where any amount is received or given to him on behalf of his client, the fact of such receipt must be intimated to the client, as early as possible.

28. After the termination of the proceedings, the advocate shall be at liberty to

appropriate towards the settled fee due to him, any sum remaining unexpended out of the amount paid or sent to him for expenses, or any amount that has come into his hands in that proceeding.

29. Where the fee has been left unsettled, the advocate shall be entitled to deduct, out of any moneys of the client remaining in his hands, at the termination of the proceeding for which he had been engaged, the fee payable under the rules of the Court, in force for the time being, or by then settled and the balance, if any, shall be refunded to the client.

30. A copy of the client’s account shall be furnished to him on demand provided thenecessary copying charge is paid.

31. An advocate shall not enter into arrangements whereby funds in his hands are

concerned into loans.

32. An advocate shall not lend money to his client for the purpose or any action or legal proceedings in which he engaged by such client.

Explanation – An advocate shall not be held guilty for a breach of this rule, if in the course a pending suit or proceeding, and without any arrangement with the client in respect of the same, the advocate feels compelled by reason of the rule of the court to make a payment to the court on account of the client for the progress of the suit or proceeding.

33. An advocate who has, at any time, advised in connection with the institution of a suit, appeal or other matter or has drawn pleadings, or acted for a party, shall not act, appear or plead for the opposite party.