Legal Question in Criminal Law in

My lawyer has cheated me & taken advantage of my faith & trust in him. He first charged Rs. 55,000 for me for a criminal cum civil case against 2 fellow professionals (including a senior) continuously harassing me in my company for 2 years leading to a lengthy health breakdown from stress at work. My lawyer also asked for 20% of final award received by me as part of the fees. He was referred by a friend & being my first time with legal system I had no knowledge of prevalent fee structures & trusted him to be a good man & never questioned his intentions accepting his fees without any negotiation or even a single question. Till now, he has only filed the complaint in court with most non-technical knowledge (100% cut-copy-paste of my own words). Later on I realised going rate for such a small case for such a lawyer is only Rs. 5,000 - 10,000 in the District court. Also, that asking % on reward as fees is now allowed for lawyers per bar council rules.I was shocked and hurt to know that but kept quiet waiting for the right time. After sometime I decided to withdraw the case as I did not want to upset things at my work-place & asked him to refund the Rs. 55,000 minus the case filing charge which should be very small, as per bar council rules. He pointed out that in the receipt he had sent me via email he had mentioned this amount is only for initial filing & consultation and hence since filing is over the money is exhausted and there is no refund since he is also losing out on the % part of the deal. I never expected this trick from him - consultation charges according to me meant his services for the whole case because I did not expect him to be so sly when he had issued me the receipt and no one can believe a simple filing of case could be worth a huge amount of Rs. 55,000. Pl suggest - how is it justified for him to charge such a huge amount only for a silly filing which hardly required any efforts from him (99% document drafted by me), the case has not even started and the offending parties not even notified. Complete cases are done by similar lawyers for less than Rs. 10,000, this is only very initial filing. Also, fees as % of reward is now allowed and I have proof that he asked for it on email. He also asked me on 2 different occasions for bribes for police and reader for my case which I refused or ignored. He also did not get a power of attorney signed with me before the case and has taken action in the case unilaterally without my consent in court like asking judge to go ahead with police investigation (which is now underway) when I was actually planning to take back the case. Now he is asking for huge money of Rs. 12,000 as bribe for the reader if I want to take case back and reverse the investigation. How can I press charges against the lawyer for cheating me, taking advantage of my trust and gullibility, for breaking bar council rules of conduct for lawyers and corruption charges. Any one would agree that Rs. 55,000 for a small thing like filing a case (where 99% wordings in the 10 page doc are mine) is a total rip-off and farce/big joke!!! Hope to know from you how to get back my money and get serious action done against the cheating and corrupt lawyer. What could be the options - complaint against him to bar council (but would that recover my money?), FIR or case for cheating against him in court, etc.? Pl advise. Thanks a lot. I am more hurt by his taking me on a ride despite the 100% faith I put in him as my own brother than the money, though the money rightfully is mine.


Asked on 2/01/11, 4:30 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
NIKHIL CHAUDHARI KHAITAN & JAYAKAR

Hello

The client can always file a complaint before the bar council. But here in your case you won't succeed because your Lawyer in advance had informed you about his fees structure also you cant compare fess of one lawyer with the other. For example if you would have gone to some High profile Lawyer then he would have charge you Rs.2-3 lakhs. It is the discretion of the Lawyer, to charge his fees.

Adv. Nikhil Chaudhari

9773114567

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Answered on 2/01/11, 8:32 pm
RAJIV GUPTA (Cell: +91 9811284735) [email protected]

i agree with Mr. Nikhil. in your case, you agreed to pay the required fee and after payment, you cannot say that the same job can be done for less. there are other lawyers who charge more than what your lawyer has charged. your contention has no force. at the most, you can ask him to pursue the case as you have paid him the fee.

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Answered on 2/01/11, 9:41 pm


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