Introduction
All waitlist participants shall be informed about the next enrollment date
Is there a practice area where you can quickly learn court craft in a not so intimidating environment, get clients quickly despite being young, earn enough to pay for basics while you are working on getting your long term litigation career off the ground?
Is there a practice area where you can get top companies as your client despite being young and novice in litigation?
Is there a practice area that will help you to cultivate a first set of very grateful and very impressed clients who will send you may referrals over the next few years even as you progress to more complicated and niche areas of law?
Yes there is. And it is Consumer Litigation.
The way people treat consumer litigation in law school or even in most law firms, you may mistakenly think that consumer litigation is small matters, and there is no scope to make much money or name in it.
That’s absolutely wrong. This is an area of law that you can practice to earn a lot of money, create a roster of grateful clients who send all kinds of referral work, and make an initial impression on the bar and corporate clients, all while you learn and upgrade your litigation skills.
It is much better to start your career with consumer law rather than starting with civil or criminal law practice right away.
For any young lawyer, having an in-depth knowledge of consumer litigation can be a huge asset. Do you know why?
Any consumer facing company is saddled with a host of consumer litigation and needs an army of lawyers to defend it in different consumer forums. Examples of consumer facing companies are those operating in e-commerce, real estate, retail, automobiles, banking, finance, insurance, telecom, etc.
In other words, any company which has a business-to-consumer or B2C business model (you will know that a lot of businesses work on this model) is a consumer facing company.
Such consumer facing companies need to have a team of lawyers who are specialized in handling consumer disputes. These teams comprise of in-house lawyers who collaborate with local lawyers for handling disputes in different locations.
The in-house lawyers also strategize appellate work and consumer-related work before other sectoral regulators.
In addition, the external local lawyers who work with such companies often enter into retainer arrangements, which provide them a volume of work, income and face-time before consumer forums.
Even if amounts in a particular dispute are not huge, a brand/ company needs to defend its case because an adverse judgment can exponentially increase financial implications from angry customers in similar cases, who may also file similar cases to obtain a similar relief.
Further, every sector has a unique set of sectoral laws and specialized issues which need to be dealt with in a consumer case. For example, medical negligence has a specialized range of evidentiary and documentation issues. Telecom, insurance-related and online payments-related disputes are dealt with by sectoral regulators as well.
What kind of skills are needed to succeed in consumer litigation?
You might think that having generalized litigation experience of trial court work is sufficient to enable you to succeed in consumer litigation as well. Although trial litigation experience helps, it is not a substitute for acquiring specialized insights and skills in the area.
Also, when you start your career, remember to choose the shortest path. It is unwise to first learn trial litigation and then use that as a reference point to learn consumer litigation. That is a much longer route. The law is relatively easier to get a grip over, in comparison to mainstream civil and criminal laws and trial procedures.
Consumer litigation and defense strategies themselves differ across different sectors, depending on the intricacies of the sector and whether there is a sectoral regulator for that sector or not.
In regulated sectors, there are a number of strategic decisions to be taken which involve selection of the optimal forum for a client - should one approach a consumer forum or a specialized regulatory body such as TRAI for telecom sector complaints, IRDA for insurance-related complaints, RBI’s digital ombudsman for online transactions?
An effective lawyer will be able to advise a consumer on the optimal forum depending on the nature of the matter and proceed forward with the litigation, and be equipped to take it to its end result. He or she will not have piecemeal skill-sets.
Consumer litigation is not always as simple as the average lawyer expects it to be!
Are consumer disputes too small to be profitable? Is it possible to build a lucrative practice?
Some lawyers who represent a consumer’s interest in consumer disputes mistakenly believe that consumer matters are not of high enough value for lawyers to build a financially sustainable practice. However, that notion is not entirely true. It depends on who you select as a client and the level of skills you have.
There are clients who do not want to pay lawyers for their services, but there is enough number of high value matters around. Consumer forums are also awarding significant compensation in disputes.
For example, recently a Mohali court ordered INR 1 lakh to be paid as compensation by Snapdeal to a customer who purchased an iPhone but was delivered a brick.
Also, consumer disputes need not be small at all. Consumer disputes may arise over a flat that costs crores, or an expensive car. Compensations can run into crores. Such matters can be quite lucrative.
Similarly, the amounts ordered as compensation in medical negligence cases are sizeable. In 2014 the Supreme Court had ordered INR 11 crores as compensation for the death of a patient in a medical negligence case.
Do you think working on these matters would not enable the lawyers to generate a viable fee from their clients?
Many lawyers underestimate the level of insights required in this area and are therefore they are unable to secure such work. Due to fragmented knowledge, their skills and insights are on limited aspects of the litigation process, and they are therefore unable to add enough value to clients. You do not need to be in that position.
If you have adequate skill-sets, you will also have the confidence to be selective with clients and take up work which also moves your practice forward, apart from contributing to consumer interest.
Where a matter is important but not remunerative financially for an individual consumer, you can also file claims on behalf of a class of consumers to alter the economics of the situation entirely.
For example, if a consumer is only willing to pay you an INR 2000 lump-sum for a particular matter, you may not be able to take it up. However, if he or she is able to get 10 or 20 consumers facing the same issue and everyone agrees to pay you INR 2000, then you may be able to take up the case, as it becomes financially viable for you.
Recent amendments on pecuniary limit is a game changer
There is another piece of information that will change the face of consumer litigation in India. The Consumer Protection Act restricted the pecuniary jurisdiction of district forums to up to INR 20 lakhs.
Many well-paying clients would inflate the amount of compensation claimed so that they could file their case at the state commission or the national commission.
As a result, the matters at district forums were of relatively lesser economic value.
For a young lawyer, especially one who does not practice in Delhi or a state capital, representing a client at the state commission or national commission is more difficult owing to numerous factors. He or she may be unfamiliar with the bench as his or her daily practice is not in that city or in that forum. Further, competition is at its highest as the most experienced litigators at the state and national level are engaged. In addition, the young lawyer needs to take up the matter at the cost of his or her local practice for a matter.
Lawyers who work as juniors in a senior lawyer’s chamber will find it extremely difficult to take this work up as they will need to be in the local courts assisting their seniors everyday and cannot leave their home city or town to take up a matter in the state forums.
Therefore, for a young lawyer to appear in these matters, it would mean travelling out of the familiar territory, competing with such litigators and also foregoing matters in their local jurisdiction on the day of a hearing.
However, the new Consumer Protection Bill proposes to enhance the jurisdiction of district forums to up to INR 1 crore, which will bring a lot of high value consumer litigation from the state forums to the district level, and the national commission to the state level.
Basically, it brings the action to your home turf.
This will create an incredible opportunity for young lawyers to participate in high-value litigation consumer litigation on the consumer’s side as well. Consumer litigation in India is set for a boom!
You may or may not exclusively specialize in this area, but ignoring it might lead to missing out on some interesting career opportunities.
banking 
finance 
insurance 
Media Entertainment 
Fashion 
FMCG 
E-COMMERCE 
FOOD AND BEVERAGES 
HOSPITALITY 
AUTOMOBILE 
FINTECH 
