The Efficient Advocate-

Whenever any person faces any legal issue then he needs an Advocate. The First question that may arise in a person’s mind is how to find a good and efficient Advocate for your case. Likewise, the second question which may arise is what and how to consult an Advocate . So, In this article the answer to the first question has been covered on how to find an efficient Advocate for your case. If you do not have an efficient Advocate for your case it may lead to havoc for your legal issue.

Who is an Advocate–

Section 2(1)(a) of the Advocate Act, 1961 defines the term Advocate. As per this section “Advocate” means an Advocate whose name has been entered in the State roll prepared and maintained by a State Bar Council under section 17 of the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961) and who is a member of a State Bar Association or State Advocates’ Association. In general, an Advocate is a person who represents cases in a court of law. In addition to membership of the State Bar Association, he must qualify the All India Bar Examination (AIBE).

Who is an efficient Advocate-

It is a highly debatable topic who can be called as an efficient Advocate? If you ask 10 people all of them will give you a different perspective based on their experience and knowledge. In your case, you are to ascertain the qualities you would prefer in any Advocate whom you want to engage. A good and efficient Advocate listens to their client carefully, gets the necessary information and documents from him and analyses the same. In many cases what to bring before court, and what not to do, an Advocate is the one who can tell you all of this. By efficient advocate, we mean that who can ascertain that your legal issues are resolves accordingly in your favour.

How to find an efficient Advocate-

You must engage an Advocate who can assist you with your legal issue. To get relief it is very necessary otherwise things may get worse. Some Advocates deal with specific matters, some advocates deal with all kinds of matters no matter what the case is. So, you are the one who is to decide whom to engage but again the question remains the same how can you find a good Advocate? Here, some points have been discussed which may lead you to your suitable Advocate:

know the Nature of your case

To engage a good and efficient Advocate it becomes very necessary to understand the nature of your case. By the term ‘nature’ it is meant by that what is your case type. It is civil, criminal, service-related, corporate, etc. By understanding the nature of the case you will get a limited number of Advocates amongst whom you will have to find a suitable one. A few of the case-oriented Advocate classifications are given below:

1. Criminal law practitioner,
2. Civil law practitioner
3. Family law practitioner
4. Corporate law practitioner
5. Service matter-related practitioner
6. Taxation law practitioner
7. Cyberlaw practitioner

Advocate’s Fee–

At the initial stage understanding how much you can or want to spend is necessary. Because there are Advocates who can charge thousands or Lakhs of ₹ per case. There are various examples of thousands or Lakhs of ₹ per hearing are also there. So, It’s up to you how much you can pay or want to pay. For some thousands are very much, for some Lakhs or crores are nothing, and they can pay off any amount easily. In case you want to engage a Senior Advocate then you will have to pay around ₹50,000/- to lacs of ₹ only for consultation purposes.

Senior Advocate-

Section 16(2) of the Advocate Act, 1961 explains that ‘Senior Advocate’ as an advocate may, with his consent, be designated as senior advocate if the Supreme Court or a High Court is of the opinion that by virtue of his ability, [standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law] he is deserving of such distinction. Senior Advocates are very experienced and well-equipped Advocates. Their appearance in court matters a lot, but they charge around a minimum of ₹1,00,000/hearing to 15-20,00,000/ hearing. Although some senior Advocates do also a few charity cases, if you are lucky then you can get your work done by them. You should also know that there is no provision for Senior Advocates in District Courts. People write Senior Advocate in District Courts for their experience.

Junior Advocates-

People avoid engaging Junior Advocates because they are less experienced but it is not a good practice. Junior advocates do have a lot of time to study and do research about the case. They also take the assistance of their seniors in their cases regarding defence, argument, etc. Junior Advocates are also affordable in terms of money. Most of the time Junior Advocates are well-updated with day-to-day happenings in comparison to their senior Advocates.

Be aware of traps-

When people are in trouble then they try each and every possibility to get rid off that trouble. There are people who are actually not Advocates but impersonate themselves as Advocates. They appear more convincing and more real than real advocates. You will meet people who promise you that they can get your work done without advocating to save your money. It is highly recommended that only take the assistance of an Advocate not from anybody else whom you don’t know.

Educational background-

To become an advocate the basic qualification is an LL.B. Although, for dealing with special kinds of cases there are specialized courses like cyber law, corporate, intellectual property etc. However, it is not necessary that those who don’t have such additional qualifications can’t deal with such cases. Advocates deal with various kinds of cases that are interconnected with these special matters then they have to study everything. So, if any special qualification is required then it’s very good but if not then also it will be OK.

Experience-

Before engaging an advocate you can inquire about how long the Advocate has been practicing law. This would help you to know how experienced that Advocate is. You can also ask about his previous experience with such types of cases. These would assist you in understanding whether you should engage him or not. But you should keep this thing in mind that with more experience the fee will be much higher. Although, most of the works are done by junior councils.

Ask others for Efficient Advocate-

It is also advised that you can ask other people who are known to you whether they engaged any Advocate. If yes, then who and how was their experience with that Advocate? It would assist you in forming your judgment about which Advocate you should engage. Don’t ask from any single person, try to have information from several persons. It may help you to get to the good one.

In this article, we have known who is an Advocate, what things one should look into to find a good Advocate, what traps people get into, and things about senior and junior Advocates. You can also appear before a court of law for contesting your case. In my opinion, one should not do so because you are not having as much knowledge, experience, and resources as Advocates have. In conclusion, I would say that one should look into the above-stated things and also the other things that one thinks to be expedient to have a good Advocate.

Reference- Advocate Act, 1961