Procedure to Change Your Lawyer In the Middle of a Case
In any kind of civil case, the lawyer-client relationship is multi-dimensional: part business agreement, part exercise in teamwork, and part close relationship requiring the divulging and maintaining of sensitive confidential information.
In all of its aspects, this relationship is founded upon mutual trust, and when that trust is broken it is difficult (if not impossible) for the lawyer and client to continue to work together.
What are the important considerations while changing your lawyer?
The fact that a client is free to change lawyer mid-case does not necessarily mean that it is wise to do so. The client should think about the below mentioned questions before thinking of changing the lawyer:
- whether the existing lawyer-client relationship can be repaired so as to allow continuing representation.
- whether the new lawyer will require a retainer, and if so, how much that will cost
- how much time and effort it will take the new lawyer to get up to speed in the case
How the lawsuit gets affected by this change?
In ordinary circumstances, the new lawyer will ask for a substantial retainer, which will add to the client’s overall legal fees which as a client one would not prefer adding up more and more fees payment towards lawyers on the other hand not getting any good results.
Since replacing a lawyer mid-case can be costly and stressful, you may want to do some soul searching to figure out why the relationship has deteriorated, and what, if any, steps can be taken to salvage it. Therefore it is better to improve the misunderstandings your lawyer by more discussions unless and until the reason for the abandonment is a major flaw in the lawyer. Nevertheless, below is the procedure to change your lawyer in the midst of a case.
Procedure to change your lawyer
- At the initiation of a lawsuit, the pleader has to file to the Court a duly signed written document by the client, which is termed as a Vakalatnama.
- At the very first instance after being dissatisfied with the lawyer, the client should try and resolve the issue amicably. If it is not resolved then he might ask for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the advocate on the Vakalatnama or on other documents related to the case.
- There may be cases when the advocate does not agree to give a NOC, then the person can issue a notice of termination to the advocate and apply to the court for withdrawal of Vakalatnama.
Order 3 of Civil Procedure Code gives aggrieved persons the right to choose one’s pleader. Therefore changing of pleader with the leave of the Court is possible. The new pleader should submit a duly signed Vakalatnama to the court. Hence it is possible to change one’s pleader. In a few cases problem arises with the case history. If the pleader fails to give it to the client, the client can apply for the order sheet by an application to the Court.
About the Author
This article has been authored by Rudraksh Durrani, Intern at LegalNow.
