New Delhi: Imagine cruising by a billboard in any of India’s metros that reads: “Tripped on your staircase? Want to sue your landlord? Contact us.”
For now, you might just have to imagine such a pitch, though they are quite commonplace in the US, where some personal injury lawyers, disparagingly referred to as ambulance chasers, solicit business by lurking around hospitals or by advertising in newspapers and in Yellow Pages with toll-free phone numbers and “free” consultations.
While it may never reach this level of advertising—even in the US, ambulance chasing isn’t representative of the ads that many law firms and lawyers run—there is a growing debate in the Indian legal world on why the profession should have very strict curbs on promoting its services stemming from laws that originate from British thinking.
“Legal advertising has never been a reality in India,” says Niraj Kumar, partner at Agarwal Law Associates. “But the legal fraternity is deliberating if it should retain the Victorian tradition that bars advertising. Even England has done away with it. This is not just a change of heart but a realization that the nature of legal services has changed considerably.”
India’s Supreme Court is set to hear on 22 November a writ petition, filed by advocate V.B. Joshi, to challenge Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules formulated under the Advocates Act of 1961 that bans advertising by lawyers. BCI, a body of elected representatives from the legal fraternity and ex-officio members such as the attorney general and solicitor general of India, lays down standards in professional conduct and etiquette as well as legal education. BCI has been constituted under the Advocates Act that regulates legal practice in India.
At the last hearing held in September in the case that was filed in 2000, BCI, as well as the Union government, did an abrupt turnaround and suggested that lawyers be permitted to advertise through their own websites and also be allowed to insert entries in online legal directories.
Less than a decade ago, some corporate legal advisory firms were reprimanded by BCI and directed to pull their entries from www.martindale.com, an online legal directory.
But the government’s view on all other advertising options in print, television, radio and the Internet, however, remains unchanged. And it isn’t just the government that seems to feel this way.
“We are against full-blown advertising. But if someone in Chicago wants to find a lawyer in Kanpur, the Internet can be an effective tool,” insists Lalit Bhasin, partner of the law firm Bhasin and Co. Bhasin is also president of the Society of Indian Law Firms, an association of top firms in the country that sought permission to intervene in the writ petition related to legal advertising before the Supreme Court.