I was reading the story of one of the first movers in the Online Legal Services industry and was not so surprised to see that one of their Clients has published a comment on their service wherein the Client, who hired a Lawyer from Bangalore through their platform, had to pay advance amount of Rs. 22,000/- without getting the “proper” legal service. Here, I am neither trying to qualify the services of the lawyer nor the online services being provided by this Company. What I am trying to bring to fore is that there are many known and unknown issues with the Legal sector and one cannot claim to know and understand everything about it. If one claims to know, then may be at his/her own peril. The caveat emptor will not work here. Legal sector is uncharted territory and one can see lots of beautiful mermaids (read opportunities) in it but the moment one starts wading or swimming towards them then one realizes that the water is full of piranhas. You get bitten many a times and even fall prey to the piranhas. Let’s ask some simple questions here. If this sector is so lucrative then why none of the corporate houses have ever tried to enter the sector? Why the well-established principles and theories of business world do not work here in this sector? Why don’t we have even a single Legal Business Strategists in the business world? The answers are not tough to understand but certainly tougher to articulate. I am going to give it a try here. Let me try to do the mission Impossible, Tom Cruise style. Legal sector due to its idiosyncrasies has inherent systemic qualities. Apart from the religion and religious leaders, lawyers are the second lot to get respect from the common people not out of respect but out of fear. (Good lord, we lawyers are just one step away from being closure to the GOD). Fear of law, fear of unknowns, fear of unending time taken to get judgement, fear of the perceptual loathsome figure of a lawyer, fear of white shirt beneath the black robe, etc. Can we, the online legal service providers, break this psychological “untrue” fear in the minds of the common people? It’s a question to take back home and ponder as the answer can’t be given in few days or months. So, the point here is that it’s not the sleek looking website or the American accent speaking founders of this companies who can remove the veil of fear but something damn drastic that we need to innovate. We need to provide the psychological comfort to the Clients, at large and then think about any business model. Having said that we do need to remember that in India “one size doesn’t fit all”. Meaning we need to be seriously innovative, humane and sensitively flexible to accommodate diversities in thought and needs of the clients. I guess we badly need a machine who understands the Legal world, Business world, Technology world, Psychological world, Finance world and is yet human enough to change, mould, adapt and adopt the ways we deliver the Legal services to our clients. I have lots more to write but don’t want to make this long as Mahabharata, so more to follow on this topic in my next blog.
Posted On : April 13, 2017
Issues and problems with Online Legal Services in India
Written By : ABHIMANYU SHANDILYA
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Dear Client, From the prolonged content of your query, it appears you are extremely aggrieved with the service of the service provider and decided to move the Court for relief. On detection of defects in the product, post-purchase is termed and defined under Sec.2(34) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 as "Product Liability" which means the responsibility of a product manufacturer or product seller/service centre, to compensate for any harm caused to the consumer/customer by such defective product manufactured or sold or for a deficiency in services relating thereto. Chapter VI, Section 82 to Section 87 of the Consumer Protection Act deals with product liability and So, in the given scenario, serving a strong legal notice to both Service Provider and the product manufacturer, you can file a complaint against them over alleged deficiency in service and unfair trade practices before the District Consumer Commission under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 claiming replacement of the vehicle or refund of the cost of the vehicle including the expenses incurred towards repairing/servicing along with compensation for harassment and cost of litigation. As per Section 69 of the CPA, the complaint should be filed within two years from the date of the cause of action. Since you have been facing a deficiency in service since 2017 up to now, your claim is now barred by limitation. So, you have to file a petition seeking condonation of delay on the grounds of continued cause of action along with your complaint petition and lead the evidence to justify your claim before the Commission. If required, hire the service of an experienced Advocate handling consumer cases to navigate the issue in the right way.
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Look Poonam these are fraud companies and they do not do anything except trap you and then take money from you. You need not worry nothing will happen to you. Just ignore there calls and mails. If you want you can speak to me.
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Dear Client, From your prolonged contents of query, it appears that you become the victim of deficient service from different service providers on multiple occasions. To resolve the issue of deficiency in service legally you have to knock the door of the Consumer Forum. So, in the given scenario, serving a strong legal notice to all the service providers, you can file a complaint against them over alleged deficiency in service and unfair trade practices before the Dist. Consumer Commission under Sec.35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 claiming the money you lost for deficient service along with compensation for harassment and mental agony and cost of litigation. The complaint should be filed within two years from the date of the cause of action.
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Dear Client, FITJEE being an educational service provider is accountable to its student customers for any deficiency in service or unfair trade practice. An aggrieved student dissatisfied with the service of a coaching institution can file a complaint under Sec.35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 before the Dist. Consumer Commission on the ground of deficiency in service claiming refund of coaching fees taken in advance for the whole session by the service provider FITJEE who cannot claim it without providing the service as agreed. Reach out to an Advocate for serving a legal notice to the FITJEE and for filing a complaint against them under the Consumer Protection Act before the Consumer Court claiming a refund of the entire coaching fees along with compensation for harassment. The complaint should be filed within two years from the date of the cause of action, i.e, from the date of refusal to refund the course fees on your demand.
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As per law father is the natural guardian of child above 5 years. Fluency in English does not mean that person is intelligent and sane. Many people like from china, Japan, USSR, Israel etc uses translator to communicate. 1. Since child is born in India hence till 18 he can have be Indian citizen or be Australian citizen and on attaining 18 child shall have option to choose citizenship of either country. 2. Yes. 3. Yes. On attaining 18 years he shall have option to choose citizenship of either country. 4. You cannot stop a person from filing case but you have right to defend and also to take precautions to save yourself from such frivolous cases.
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