A criminal defense lawyer must act upon accurate information relayed by the client in order to appropriately advise and defend the client. The privilege is designed to allow the client to advise his/her attorney of all pertinent details, even the bad ones, without fear of this information being relayed to others, particularly the government.
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A client comes to a lawyerâs office, explains about his legal issues or requirement, reaches an agreement and formally engages the lawyer to deal with his legal issues. There are no mandatory rules that are required to be completed with appointment of a lawyer.
According to Rule 1.2 of the American Bar Association Model Rules Professional Conduct (2004) â⌠a lawyer shall abide by a clientâs decisions concerning the objectives of representation and, as required by Rule 1.4, shall consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued.
A compromise by counsel will not bind the client, if counsel is not apprised of facts the knowledge of which is essential in reference to the question on which he has to exercise his discretion, for example that the terms accepted had already been rejected by the client.
The English law on this issue is clear that lawyers donât have authority to settle a clientâs case without her proper consent. Lawyers often represent clients who are minor, mentally disabled or juveniles.
While stating that statutorily there exists no prohibition on child witnesses to depose in criminal or civil cases, except w.hen the child does not understand the questions put to them, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a learned, laudable, landmark and latest judgment titled Sanjay Vs State of Haryana in CRA-D-1903-DB-2014 (O&M) delivered as recently as on February 4, 2022 has observed that when a child fully understands the questions and can provide answers regarding the same, rationally, then the testimony of a child witness can be the sole reason for conviction.
Just one year of the Pandemic, and the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian Judiciary was very apparent, and now, almost two years later from the initial âhit of the pandemicâ, the judiciary is finding itself entangled in a very difficult position.
Technology giants, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk and Brad Smith have backed the regulation of artificial intelligence. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, the largest Artificial Intelligence company in the world, while writing for the Financial Times, warned against the dangers of keeping artificial intelligence unregulated.
While Cloud Kitchens are increasingly emerging on the landscape during this pandemic period. Given the present scenario, cloud kitchens are resorting to be the cogent and holistic approach which seem to be flooding the Indian market.
While sending a firm, full and final rebuff to an application for compounding of offences, the single Judge Gwalior Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court in a learned, laudable, landmark and latest judgment titled Dharmpal Singh Jadon & Ors. Vs. State of M.P. & Anr. in Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.
While Banks have already started empowering their hands by the use of EVA (Electronic Virtual Assistants) for a variety of activities including streamlining of regular inquiries, simplify typing, time transactions, notifications etc.
This is generally the manner by which a lawyerâclient relation will be established. There is no other requirement to be fulfilled by the advocate. So an oral agreement concluded between a lawyer and client for providing legal service in lieu of an agreed fee can establish a lawyerâclient relation.
Lawyerâclient relationship is the most important aspect of professional life of lawyers. When lawyers enter into professional relation with their clients they become bound by several ethical and professional duties. These duties are a mixture of status and contract emerging out of the nature of the relationship governing lawyer and client. Observing these duties is indispensable under the rules governing standards of professional conduct for lawyers. Lot has been written about these duties and the need to observe them, but the untraded area in the literature remains some of the challenges that arise in course of observing these duties due to some equally competing issues. The lawyers often face these challenges in their professional life, but little guidance is available to address them effectively. In this context, the aim of this article is to trace some of these competing issues and challenges and discuss the legal and regulatory framework that help to address them. The article begins by exploring the issues that arise at the very formation of the lawyerâclient relationship. In the second part, the article examines the issue of lawyerâs scope and authority to make decisions in legal transactions for their clients. Also it covers the issues involving extent of lawyerâs authority to take decisions on behalf of mentally impaired or minor clients. Finally, the article looks into the issues that come up during the discharge of the lawyerâclient relationship. The article concludes on the note that to ensure an effective and satisfactory lawyerâclient relation it is an imperative that lawyers are sensitized with these issues and the principles they can look at for their resolution.
Rule 11 of BCI Rule states that a lawyer is bound to accept a case unless there is a special circumstance which justifies her recusal for accepting a case. The issue that rises is whether a lawyerâs refusal of a case on the ground that he cannot offer competent representation due to lack of his specialized skills or knowledge can be justified as special circumstance. It is a duty of a lawyer to provide competent representation to a client. According to various authorities a competent representation requires legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. 4 A lawyer may not possess the required necessary special training or prior experience to handle legal problems of a particular type with which the lawyer is unfamiliar. To competently manage a case by a lawyer what is required is having strong grip over some fundamental skills, such as the analysis of precedent, the evaluation of evidence and legal drafting. The most fundamental legal skill consists of determining what kind of legal problems a situation may involve, a skill that necessarily transcends any particular specialized knowledge. According to the American Bar Association Model Rules Professional Conduct (2004) in Rule 1.1 a lawyer is permitted to refuse to take a case in an unfamiliar field if the lawyer lacks â thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation .â Further to resolve this ethical dilemma of lawyers the BCI is negotiating a new code of ethics 5 suitable to contemporary era, states in its Rule 4 that â An Advocate may decline a specialist brief if he/she considers himself not competent to accept the brief .â
A lawyerâclient relationship may be established when a client approaches a lawyer for some legal advice or service and the lawyer accepts to provide the same . But when a lawyer enters into a relation with his client to provide his legal service, ...
These ethical duties are a mixture of status and contract emerging out of the nature of the relationship governing the lawyer and client. That is to say that some elements of this relationship are based on the contractual relation that the lawyer is entering with his client to provide his legal service.
lawyers as agents have limited authority to settle clients cases because of the implied authority vested by his appointment as a counsel. But the court also states that âit will be prudent for counsel not to act on implied authority except when warranted by the exigency of circumstances demandâ.
Where counsel enters into a compromise in intended pursuance of terms agreed upon between the clients, and, owing to a misunderstanding, the compromise fails to carry out the intentions of one side, the compromise does not bind the client, and the court will allow the consent to be withdrawn.
It also referred to legendary American lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857-1930) who was strongly of the view that every accused, no matter how wicked, loathsome, vile or repulsive he may be regarded by society has the right to be defended in court.
The bench cited Article 22 (1) of the Constitution which says âno person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for which arrest has been made nor shall he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal practitioner of his choiceâ.
The Supreme Court has ruled lawyers or their associations cannot refuse to appear for accused whether they are terrorist, rapists, murderers or any others as such refusal would be a violation of the Constitution, Bar Council norms and tenets of the Bhagavad Gita.
Similarly, sometimes the Bar Association passes a resolution that they will not defend a person who is alleged to be a terrorist or a person accused of a brutal or heinous crime or involved in a rape case.