Law ministry lists ways to reduce backlog - A Rehash of the same old Story?

Seems like an Old Read....
Would have helped if the previous Governments had given it a serious thought to Ramp up the Justice Delivery System in India.

From the Times of India dated:Jan 29, 2015, 06.47 AM IST

The law ministry has drawn up a list of good practices followed by some of the high courts (HC) and circulated them recently to chief justices of all HCs to implement the same as part of a common action plan to bring down pendency of cases, particularly those which are older than five years.

Setting up fast track courts, designating a special day in a week for disposal of older cases and adopting a case flow management system are some of the measures the Centre has suggested to all chief justices of high courts to be adopted for reducing pendency.

The government has also highlighted best innovative initiatives undertaken in many other countries to address the backlog. Encouraging pre-trial proceedings by several countries prior to commencement of the trial, court performance measurement and monitoring and mandatory prior notice in civil cases are some of the initiatives suggested.

In the pre-trial proceedings, followed in some countries, a meeting is arranged in chambers between judge, counsel for accused, and the prosecution and specific issues of trial are narrowed down in order to save time.

Regular assessment and monitoring of performance of courts is an effective way to bring about improved efficiency, transparency and accountability in judicial system. The law ministry suggests this could be done by introducing measurement indicators based on globally accepted benchmarks such as leadership and management, court planning and policies, court resources, court proceedings and public trust and confidence.

The government has also suggested mandatory prior notice in civil cases that would help in speedy trials. For this it has mooted a provision similar to section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) for all categories of civil cases.

Section 80 of the CPC requires that a litigant must give two months' notice to the concerned party. The government thinks introducing this guideline by the court would help in curtailing unnecessary litigation.

Among the good practices followed by some of the HCs, the Allahabad HC has come in for praise for organizing Lok Adalats regularly during weekends. More than 3.22 lakh cases have been settled in 766 Lok Adalats in the state during March-June 2014. The largest HC in the country has also set up 171 reconciliation and mediation centres in districts with the help of the state government.

These mediation centres have settlement rates of 26%. The HC has also proposed to set up 81 fast track courts for trial of rape cases.

Indian court dismisses challenge to presence of international law firms- Legalweek

From the Legalweek and Indian Express, 'via Blog this'

International law firms should not be prevented from visiting India to advise local clients on foreign law, an Indian high court has confirmed. The ruling comes in response to a petition questioning the legality of 'fly-in, fly-out' legal practices by foreign law firms as well as legal process outsourcing operations based on the ground in India.

The case was brought by Association of Indian Lawyers representative AK Balaji against the Government of India, the Bar Council of India and a list of more than 20 law firm defendants, including all of the UK's magic circle. The judgment, handed down by the high court in Madras yesterday (21 February), concluded that foreign law firms or foreign lawyers cannot practice law in India either on the litigation or non-litigation side, but that there is no bar for foreign firms or lawyers to visit India on a temporary basis to advise locally-based clients on foreign law issues. The court also said that foreign lawyers can enter India to handle "arbitration proceedings in respect of disputes arising out of a contract relating to international commercial arbitration."

In a statement, Clifford Chance said: "We think it is unclear whether the court is saying that foreign lawyers cannot otherwise practise non Indian law in India. If that is the case, we consider it to be unnecessarily and unreasonably restrictive and we believe would be a misreading of the Advocates Act, which we do not believe was ever intended to address the question of the practise of non Indian Law. We will be considering whether an appeal to get clarity on these points is appropriate.

"What also remains to be addressed by the Indian authorities is the bigger issue of collaboration and partnership between Indian lawyers and international law firms, and of international firms advising on Indian as well as non Indian law."

The news comes after the Bar Council of India last year agreed to set out a timeline for the liberalisation of its legal market, prompting the Law Society of England and Wales to proclaim it was confident that the long-awaited process was finally underway.

From the Indian Express - http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Foreign-law-firms-OK-to-flyin-flyout/914964/

In an important decision, the Madras High Court on Tuesday allowed foreign lawyers and law firms to do business in India on a “fly-in-and-fly-out” basis while categorically refusing their plea to be allowed to practice in India, whether in litigation or non-litigation. Hearing the A K Balaji versus Union of India matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam ruled that foreign lawyers couldn’t be “debarred to come to India and conduct arbitration proceedings in respect of disputes arising out of a contract relating to international commercial arbitration”.

The court also paved the way for setting up legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies, but said they would have to stay away from court practice and giving legal advice, unless the advice pertains to foreign law.

More money, less proofreading - Legalweek

More money, less proofreading - Legalweek

Stephenson Harwood solicitor Rabia Younus on the transformation from trainee to qualified lawyer

Many of you will have recently received the long-awaited, extremely valuable (and very expensive!) piece of paper known as a practising certificate - proof that you are finally qualified to practise as a solicitor. However, if you were expecting some earthshaking feeling or sudden enlightenment on the mysterious and murky depths of the law, I am afraid you'll have been disappointed. What you will progressively sense, though, is the subtle yet significant transformation of your role within your firm. I qualified in the commercial litigation group at Stephenson Harwood in March this year. Seven months' post-qualification, and the differences between life as a trainee and a newly-qualified solicitor (NQ) are becoming increasingly apparent.

Am I now expected to run matters on my own?

No is the short answer. Nor will you suddenly be expected to know all the answers. In fact, it's likely that you will have almost the same level of supervision as a trainee. You will, however, be expected to be more proactive. Gone are those days as a trainee when you waited for instructions from your supervisor; partners will now expect you to take active steps without being prompted - for example, preparing a draft response to a client query, suggesting a solution to a problem or proposing the next steps in a matter.

A striking difference between life as a trainee and an NQ is the sudden leap in responsibility. Tasks which are not usually entrusted to trainees like conducting meetings on your own, liaising directly with clients, reviewing and commenting on agreements and preparing bills, may now fall upon you. You may also find that partners will rely on you to remember deadlines. As you can no longer hide behind the trainee card if things go wrong, you must be organised, think ahead and, most importantly, diarise deadlines.

What practical changes should I be aware of?

One of the main added pressures of qualification is hourly billing targets. Most firms have informal targets for trainees, but upon qualification these will now become official and be used as part of your assessments and possibly be linked to a bonus scheme. Consequently, it is important that you demonstrate enthusiasm to take on as much work as you can manage and that you record time accurately and efficiently.

A further practical change is continuing professional development (CPD). In order to renew your practising certificate each year, you must attend enough accredited courses and events or engage in accredited activity to accumulate the requisite number of CPD points by the end of the CPD year.

Do I need to bring in clients now that I am qualified?

Not exactly, but you may be expected to start engaging in more business development. This may mean attending more client drinks and seminars to work on your networking skills, or you may go a little further and organise a networking event yourself.

What are the perks of being qualified?

While the increased responsibility may seem a little frightening, it goes hand in hand with more interesting work. A bonus of qualification is that you can finally delegate jobs such as bundling and proofreading to trainees and paralegals, leaving you with time to get stuck into the juicier work.

Once qualified, it is important that you start to delegate work. Naturally, you will find this difficult at first as you may be delegating to someone who is only six months your junior or someone who you are friends with, but it's important - not only so that you can concentrate on fee earning tasks, but also because your clients will not be happy if they are being charged at your newly qualified rate for non fee earning tasks.

Lastly, you will notice a nice little increase in your salary that should make all this extra work and responsibility a little less of a burden.

Rabia Younus is an assistant solicitor at Stephenson Harwood