July 3, 2013

People suffer loss of millions of rupees for not paying few thousand rupees of consulting fees to lawyers.

Shocking True Facts: People suffer loss of millions of rupees for not paying few thousand rupees of consulting fees to lawyers.


A True Incident

I heard about this incident around 1982. A party was served with legal notice which demanded shares in valuable property.


He went a to leading lawyer who used to charge Rs.10,000/- for consulting for 10 minutes, in those days. After looking at notice, he advised party to "Do nothing. Do not give any reply."


The party followed the advised. It saved his property of millions of rupees. Any reply to notice could have revived "Limitation period" and party could have lost property in litigation.


Situation Today


Most litigants do not believe in paying consulting fees to lawyers.

They believe that lawyers are supposed to give free advice and they should charge fees only if some work is to be done.

So naturally, lawyers will not like to give "Do Nothing" type advice.


Many Examples


There are hundreds and thousands of such cases. It takes years before the matters reach supreme court. Most litigants never realise that their attitude of not paying consulting fees to lawyers was the root cause of their prolonged misery of litigation.


Proverb


Based on years of experience of people, there is proverb. "If you have stomach pain, you can go to any doctor. But if you have a legal issue, go to the best lawyer."


- Haresh Raichura
3/7/13