Not what I Suggested !

DNA ( 22 Sept ) carries following news report :

“ BMC  won’t pay its lawyers for adjournments “

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC ) will soon do away with the existing practice of paying lawyers even for adjournments.

Now, the civic body plans to pay lawyers only twice — at the time of admission of a case, and when the case is closed — win or lose.

The civic body believes that this will prevent lawyers from unnecessarily prolonging a case, and charging for each appearance in court.

 At present, BMC has been fighting around 60,000 cases in various courts, from land-related cases to issue of employee promotion.

As per the new plan, for cases fought at the small causes court, a lawyer will be paid Rs 25,000 at the time of admission of the case.

If BMC wins it, s/he will be paid Rs 50,000 and Rs 15,000 if it loses.

"There will be no payment for dates or adjournments," said the official. Similarly, in other cases too, lawyers will be paid only twice.

"A proposal has already been prepared under the guidance of the civic chief, and soon it will be rolled out to make lawyers more accountable towards cases," said a senior official from BMC's legal department. He added that the civic body will discontinue the service of such counsels whose performance is found to be not at par.

According to an official, around 225 new lawyers will be brought under BMC's panel, and the process will begin soon. Of the total 225 lawyers, 100 lawyers will be fresh pass out LLB students. "We want to give an opportunity to fresh LLBs to start their career with BMC," said the official. He added fresh lawyers will be assigned cases small causes court.

However, the civic body will also bring lawyers with experience of five to 10-15 years for important cases.

The Bombay High Court had recently slammed the BMC for assigning inefficient lawyers on important cases. The civic chief Ajoy Mehta had informed the court that the BMC is in the process of bringing more lawyers under the civic body's panel.

I would say , a good beginning which can , over time , migrate to my following suggestion ( sent as email to BMC Commissioner ) :

Saturday, 19 August 2017

An App called “ AdJourn “

DNA ( 30 July ) carried a report with following headline :

“ BMC tracks counsels, to fire those below par “

The civic body is using a software to keep track of its 60,000 court cases

According to an official, the counsels’ performance will be monitored through the number of adjourn to date

“ We have found that counsels kept running the case for years by getting new dates and continued to charge for each appearance in court “ , said the official

The law department of the BMC, however, informed him that it does not have record about the success rate of the cases. “Till now no such independent record is available with the department,” the law department stated in the reply.

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Now , there are 2 types of cases , viz:

TYPE A

·         Cases filed by others on BMC

-      Where BMC will save lawyer’s fees if “ No of hearing dates “ are reduced . Call this a SAVING

TYPE B

·         Cases filed by BMC on others

-      Where winning that case would result in some “ Earnings “ for BMC . Call this aEARNING

       

Hence , the lawyer’s fees should be decided based on SAVINGS ( in case of TYPE A ) ,

Or EARNINGS ( in case of TYPE B ) – which accrue in the shortest possible time

Based on statistics for the past 10 years , BMC should compute , a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION CURVE ( a BELL shaped curve ) , for the “ No of Hearing Dates “ and calculate the STANDARD DEVIATION ( Sigma ) and calculate ( + / - ) 3 SIGMA limits

That would tell the BMC , “ Most likely Number of Hearing Dates “ for any given case

Let us say , this figure comes out 20

And BMC already knows in advance , “ Lawyer’s fees per appearance “ ( say, Rs 5000 )

So , estimating exactly ( with a probability of 99 % ) , HOW MUCH this case will cost , is a no brainer ! It would be Rs 100,000 ( for 20 hearings )

Now tell the Counsel :

Sir , this is the Upper Limit of the amount that we will pay you ( Rs 100,000 ) for fighting this case

But , from 10^th “ date “ onwards , we will start deducting , Rs 5,000 per each additional hearing , beyond 10^th ( - a PENALTY ),

And ,

For each date less than 10 , we will pay you a BONUS of Rs 5,000 !

And , we will DOUBLE the BONUS amount so arrived , if you WIN the case  !

Next witness a miracle !

All cases will start getting completed in 5 hearings !  May be in months , instead of in years !

I have a feeling that , overall , BMC will save crores of rupees ( despite paying BONUSES to lawyers ) , since it would save a huge amount of TIME  that its officers are currently spending in courts ( - and earning TA / DA ! )

After reading this , do not be surprised if some Start Up ( could be :  MeetUrPro / LawRato/ Vakilsearch /  IndiaFilings / Vahura  ) , comes up with a Mobile App called , “  AdJourn “ , to enable BMC lawyers to enter the adjourned date in the App which instantly and automatically , updates the CASE STATUS on the BMC web site and simultaneously , on the web site of the concerned court  !

Call this , “ Transparency at its Best “ ( - also to judge the performance of the JUDGE ! )

With more than 30 million cases pending in Courts all over India ,”  AdJourn “ could change the very landscape of India’s Legal Management System , if adopted by all the Courts !

This could be one more “ App for Everything “ – which Shri Modi would love to launch !

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22  Sept  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs