the myLaw.net blogAn advocate’s career is not all about communicating an argument effectively with a judge or assisting a senior colleague. Building lasting relationships with clients is almost equally important. Since legal education, unfortunately, provides very little help in navigating this part of an advocate’s professional life, we asked a few experienced advocates whether they had any advice for young advocates who are commencing their professional journey. This is what they had to say.
In my previous post here, I discussed a few important terms from the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (“CPC”). That discussion alone illustrates that mechanical compliance with procedural law is not enough. Even though they are regularly described as the handmaidens of justice, procedural legislations are also statutes to which rules of statutory interpretation apply. If you are still not convinced, just talk to some colleagues about some of the most basic terms and clauses in the CPC and you will see for yourself the varied and equally plausible interpretations they can give rise to. Imagine how much trouble the creative interpretation of procedure can cause!
Let us take the case of interim applications. These are applications filed as an adjunct to the primary suit proceeding and may result in interlocutory orders, dismissals of suits, or decrees. If you represent the plaintiff, you will file along with the suit, a host of interim applications — starting from the seemingly mundane applications under Order 13 of the CPC seeking exemption from filing original documents to the important ones seeking urgent ex parte interim reliefs under Order 39 pending disposal of the suit. If you represent the defendant, you will move applications along with your written statement objecting most frequently to the maintainability of the suit on the procedural and substantive grounds under Order 7, Rules 10 and 11. Clearly, while interim applications are expected in theory to proceed in parallel to the suit, more often than not they interfere with the progress of the suit and vice versa.
More interim reliefs in the CPC, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy
Because of practice and convention, a few interim applications are invoked more often than others. But lawyers cannot afford to limit their knowledge to provisions that they frequently encounter. In fact, what better way to impress a court than to invoke a less-trod procedural provision and to explain to the court the manner in which it should be construed and applied? For instance, when sued by a foreign party that has no immovable property in India, it might help to test waters by drawing the court’s attention to Order 25 of the CPC to require the plaintiff to deposit security in court. This will help you understand the plaintiff’s will to fight to the finish since an order for depositing security casts an additional financial burden on the plaintiff besides the court fee and legal costs it has already incurred.
Another example is Order 13-A of the CPC, introduced recently through the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. It allows a defendant to seek a summary judgment in any commercial dispute if it is able to convince the court that the plaintiff is unlikely to succeed at trial and therefore no need for a protracted conventional trial. The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 is replete with such opportunities because it is designed to reduce frivolous litigation and expedite genuine litigation.
Know when to press a procedural button
That said, it is also important to appreciate the distinction between the theoretical availability of a procedural option at any stage and the appropriateness of invoking it from a strategic perspective. For instance, interrogatories under Order 11 of the CPC allow a party to put factual questions or questions relating to documents with a view to elicit answers which are not evasive. While this mechanism has certain benefits on paper, it gives the other side a peek at the interrogating party’s potential strategy at trial, besides the obvious advantage of answering questions without being under the pressure of cross-examination. Similarly, while it may seem routine to lodge a caveat under Section 148A of the CPC with a view to pre-empt the grant of ex parte orders, it is important to consider how such a course of action may be perceived and the adverse inference that a court may draw. Once again, this is a question of strategy and a litigator has to strike a balance between knowledge of a provision and the advisability of its application.
Substantive legislations also provide for a host of interim applications addressing various aspects of the subject-matter they cover. For instance, on February 5, 2016, a full bench of the Delhi High Court delivered a decision on the application of Section 124 of the Trademarks Act, 1999 under which infringement suit proceedings can be stayed subject to the satisfaction of the conditions under the provision. This decision is being considered by a division bench in a batch of appeals where Section 124 has been commonly invoked. I happen to be arguing in one of the appeals and hopefully, shall be able to write on this issue once there is more clarity.
In the next post, I will discuss discovery proceedings.
J.Sai Deepak, an engineer-turned-litigator, is an Associate Partner in the Litigation Team of NCR-based Saikrishna & Associates. Sai is @jsaideepak on Twitter and is the founder of the blawg “The Demanding Mistress” where he writes on economic laws, litigation and policy. All opinions expressed here are academic and personal.
Apart from the necessary skills and the knowledge required to build and present a case before a judge, everybody knows that hard work is essential for a successful legal practice in the courts. But what else? Are there any other “x-factor” ingredients that successful litigators have but not many others have? We put this question to some of the brightest young minds working in Delhi’s courts. Watch the videos below to find out what attributes of character are necessary for a career in litigation.
So to sum up, a junior lawyer needs to have (a) the fortitude to handle long unpredictable hours, the financial uncertainty, and the mental and physical exhaustion of the early years in the profession; (b) a love for law and the profession; and (c) the skill to network and bring in work.
There are some terms that are frequently used in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (“CPC”), and it is important to understand them well because the maintainability of a civil action can depend on your understanding. As you know, the court will not address the merits of a dispute until it is prima facie satisfied about the maintainability of an action.
Cause of action, act, and interest
In Orders 1 and 2 of the CPC, where joinder of parties and causes of actions are discussed among other things, one frequently comes across the terms “cause of action”, “interest”, and “act or transaction”. While Order 1 Rule 1 refers to “acts or transactions”, Order 1 Rule 8, which permits the filing of a representative suit, clarifies in its explanation that those claiming to file a representative suit need only have the “same interest”, they need not have the “same cause of action”. What do these terms mean?
An “act or transaction” is different from “cause of action”. The former gives rise to the latter. An actionable cause arises from an act when the act amounts to the infraction of a party’s right. For instance, selling a patented product without consent is an act which gives rise to a cause of action in favour of the patentee. The same act could also give rise to different causes of action in favour of the same right owner or several right owners. In the example above, the sale of a product could result in infringement of a patent as well as a trademark held by the same individual or could infringe several patents held by unrelated parties.
In contrast to Order 1, Rule 1, which deals with joinder of plaintiffs and Order 1, Rule 3 which deals with joinder of defendants, Order 1, Rule 8,which permits filing of a representative suit, uses the term “interest” to increase the scope for joinder of parties beyond what is provided in Rules 1 and 3. The word “interest” has been used to facilitate adjudication of all questions which arise from the same set of acts or transactions. This provision is intended to avoid multiplicity of litigation where all persons are aggrieved by the same acts or transactions. Importantly, this permits one person to represent all other “interested parties”. For instance, if a host of tenants have an issue with an act or acts of the landlord, instead of filing multiple suits or instead of naming all tenants as parties in one suit, one tenant may represent the rest. Therefore, Rule 8 enlarges the scope of joinder of parties so long as there is a communion of “interest” between the parties.
The distinction between “act or transaction”, “cause of action”, and “interest” affects the maintainability of a civil action. The failure to disclose a prima facie cause of action, for instance, would result in the dismissal of a suit at the outset under Order 7, Rule 11. Similarly, to justify arraying a host of parties as defendants, a plaintiff must set out their relationship inter se, along with their nexus to the transaction which has given rise to the cause of action in favour of the plaintiff against all the defendants. Should the plaintiff fail to justify this, his plaint could be assailed for misjoinder of parties or non-joinder of necessary parties.
Now, let us look at “facts” and “particulars”, two terms that occur frequently in relation to pleadings in Order VI.
Facts, material facts, and material particulars
Order VI of the CPC, as discussed earlier, deals with pleadings. It uses the terms “material facts” and “particulars” in different places. Are “material facts” and “particulars” the same? The rules of statutory interpretation and even a common sense understanding of the English language tell us that there is a clear difference. “Facts” refer to the broad matrix or the canvas in the backdrop of which a dispute is contested. “Material facts” are those facts which must find mention in a party’s pleadings in order to establish a claim. “Particulars”, on the other hand, refer to the addition of greater detail to the facts.
The absence of material facts prejudices a party’s case at the outset. The absence of material particulars on the other hand, is curable. The Supreme Court has discussed the distinction between material facts and particulars in Udhav Singh v. Madhav Rao Scindia (1975). In this case, the Court held that “all primary facts which must be proved at the trial by a party to establish the existence of a cause of action or his defence are material facts”. The Court also explained the consequences of the absence of material facts and material particulars.
“The distinction between “material facts” and “material particulars” is important because different consequences may flow from a deficiency of such facts or particulars in the pleading. Failure to plead even a single material fact leads to an incomplete cause of action and incomplete allegations of such a charge are liable to be struck off under Order 6, Rule 16, Code of Civil Procedure.
If the petition is based solely on those allegations which suffer from lack of material facts, the petition is liable to be summarily rejected for want of a cause of action. In the case of a petition suffering from a deficiency of material particulars, the court has discretion to allow the petitioner to supply the required particulars even after the expiry of limitation.”
These terms not only affect the the maintainability of an action, they also influence a party’s prospects at trial when a party is expected to lead evidence with respect to facts in issue. If such facts have not even been pleaded, the party cannot lead evidence to prove such facts. This would necessitate amendment of pleadings under Order 6, Rule 17, which can be a pretty messy affair.
In the next post, I will discuss interim applications under the CPC and the circumstances in which they may be employed.
J.Sai Deepak, an engineer-turned-litigator, is an Associate Partner in the Litigation Team of NCR-based Saikrishna & Associates. Sai is @jsaideepak on Twitter and is the founder of the blawg “The Demanding Mistress” where he writes on economic laws, litigation and policy. All opinions expressed here are academic and personal.c
Since Orders VI, VII, and VIII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 provide a framework for the drafting of pleadings (which I wrote about previously), it is relatively easier for a litigator to understand the requirements. There is however, no similar codified framework for legal opinions for clients and legal notices and as a result, a litigator naturally falls back on the practice of the chamber or firm that he is working with or for. Drafting legal opinions and notices however, presents a litigator with a wonderful opportunity to showcase and develop acumen, foresight, and a sense of discretion. Needless to say, the ingredients of an opinion and a notice differ and so does the approach.
Understand the situation and the client before you draft an opinion
Generally speaking, a legal opinion addresses a specific query from a client. It presents the client with the options available along with their pros and cons. Since the client must be made aware of the position of the law, the outcome of legal research forms an indispensable component of an opinion but there are sensitive aspects that go beyond an exposition of the law. While one kind of opinion presents a bouquet of options to the client and stops short of recommending the way forward, the other type also strongly recommends a specific option that (in the litigator’s opinion) is the most viable and advisable. To be clear, the ultimate decision is the client’s. The difference only lies in the degree to which the litigator leans on the client and pushes an option. In my opinion, it would help to not subscribe rigidly to either school of thought because the approach must depend on (a) the situation, (b) the client’s awareness of the legal and commercial consequences, and (c) his appetite for taking risk.
For instance, if the client is not a legally savvy individual whose personal liberty is at stake in a criminal case, it is for the litigator to help the client make the choice by uncluttering the options before him. In contrast, if the matter is a civil commercial dispute and the client is a seasoned litigant who merely wants options from which he can choose, the litigator may do just that. This rudimentary illustration is not meant to convey the impression that the stakes in a civil commercial dispute are never as high as those in a criminal matter. Regardless of the situation however, in rendering a written opinion, at all points of time the litigator must be aware that his credibility and credentials are on the line each time.
You are not an oracle
Young litigators should remember what is at stake because in their eagerness to prove themselves to their seniors and clients, they sometimes stick their necks out to such an extent that they unwittingly offer their heads on a platter to people looking for a convenient scapegoat when things don’t pan out as anticipated. Since reputation is paramount in the legal profession, the litigator must ensure that the client knows that given the several variables involved, no amount of comprehensive legal research and preparation can predict litigation outcomes with certainty. A litigator is not an oracle. Importantly, on issues where there is not enough judicial guidance, no matter how confident the litigator may be in his interpretation of the law or assessment of the situation, it is best to observe a fair degree of caution in the opinion because judicial outcomes can be bizarre no matter how clear the language of the law may be or how open-and-shut a case may seem.
Prepare before you issue notice
A legal notice is the precursor to potential litigation and therefore, a litigator should pay attention to both the content and the language. To borrow from the words of Fali Nariman, notices, like suits for defamation, are often issued in haste and regretted at leisure. Since there is no one statute for legal notices, each notice is implicitly governed by the legislation which applies to a certain act or a transaction to which the notice pertains to. For instance, if the subject-matter of the notice is an alleged contractual violation, the Contract Act and the terms of the contract have an obvious bearing on the ingredients of the notice. Similarly, if the notice alleges an infringement of trademark rights or copyright, the respective legislations and causal facts dictate the elements of the notice.
Before issuing a notice, the litigator should be satisfied that the facts placed before him by the client are reliable and give rise to at least an arguable cause of action because some legislations provide remedies to the recipient of the notice (“noticee”) for groundless threats or allegations. That being said, it would help to keep the language of the notice slightly open-ended because at the time of issuing the notice, one may not always be in possession of complete facts, and the object of the notice may be to test waters and elicit potential defenses from the noticee who is a prospective defendant or even a plaintiff. If the object of the notice is to forewarn the noticee of the existence of a right and thereby lay the foundation for the wilful violation of rights or contractual terms, as the case may be, the language of the notice and the contents of the allegation must clearly identify the scope of the right or the import of the contractual term, although this could result in limiting the scope of pleadings in litigation by estoppel. This clearly calls for a fair bit of due diligence before the notice is issued.
Limit your notice to its role in a potential litigation
Sometimes, in cases involving reputation, the tendency is to resort to puffery or to exaggerate. This is typical of trademark litigation where the trademark owner claims that his products are sold across the length and breadth of the country. In doing so, he inadvertently allows the noticee to initiate legal proceedings at a place of his choosing because the law legitimately permits him to do so. In one such case, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court held that by claiming in a legal notice that its products were sold across the length and breadth of the country, the defendant had given the plaintiff a legitimate reason to institute a suit in Delhi. Since the law is that the veracity of such a claim by the defendant can only be tested at trial, the Delhi High Court held that the plaint could not be returned under Order VII, Rule 10 for want of territorial jurisdiction. Such examples abound partly because the client may at times insist on capturing his anger, outrage, or position in harsher or more pompous language than necessary in a legal notice. But it is for the litigator to explain to the client that a legal notice forms an integral part of litigation and therefore, it is advisable to keep the language clinical and objective. Emotion too must be used only to the extent that it serves to further the legal merits of the case. Again, this is an exercise in client-counselling, which forms a large part of the litigator’s job.
In the next post, I will proceed to discuss the use of interim reliefs available under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1980.
J.Sai Deepak, an engineer-turned-litigator, is an Associate Partner in the Litigation Team of NCR-based Saikrishna & Associates. Sai is @jsaideepak on Twitter and is the founder of the blawg “The Demanding Mistress” where he writes on economic laws, litigation and policy. All opinions expressed here are academic and personal.