The Effect of COVID-19 on the Indian Legal Industry

On 22nd March 2020, the Indian government declared “ Janta Curfew” to contain the spread of pandemic coronavirus or the COVID-19 throughout the nation. The COVID-19 has hugely impacted lives, economies and its effect on the whole of mankind can be seen with governments across the world declaring lockdowns at least till the end of the month.

The Legal Industry is not immune to this pandemic and should accept this as the new normal until we find a vaccine to prevent the coronavirus infection. In India, the Supreme court and the High Courts have proactively started restricting limited entries to the courts.

This situation has forced lawyers to come up with and adapt to changes in order to deliver their services. Let’s take some time to analyze how it is going to change the Legal Industry fundamentally.

• Networking — Lawyers meet a lot of people and attend social gatherings to connect with their future clients who would consult them in their matters. This is going to be difficult with the government discouraging social gatherings of any kind.
  In this scenario, the best way is to increase visibility across social media channels and participate in online discussion forums and communities such as Quora and Reddit.
• Sharing Documents Online — It has been an issue for the industry which solely works on trust and maintaining client relationships. Documents, evidence and important documents are still exchanged between the lawyers and clients in person. However, to adapt to this present trend, lawyers and clients are exchanging documents on Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and emails. This has to go a step further. There are many software available which can help in sharing documents in a secure and safe platform.
• Online Meetings — The practising Lawyers need to be in constant touch with their clients for their important matters. The earlier practice was to call the clients to their offices and chambers to discuss their matters. This need for travel can easily be curbed through video calls. If we analyze this closely, 80% of the time the clients do not have to physically travel to their Lawyer’s office and chambers. Conducting online meetings and encouraging their clients for the same will not only save time but also reduce expenses.
• Fee Structure- Lawyers traditionally have charged their clients based on a fixed cost, if the scope of the work is pre-defined. They also charge their clients on each hearing or appearance in courts and for consultations or efforts spent on drafting their petitions. In this present situation, where travel is restricted and the client is looking for value on their every spent. Lawyers might have to start charging their clients an hourly fee, a trend observed only with corporate lawyers till now. They can do so by using time tracking tools available online.
• Video Conference — Clients often make travel and stay arrangements for their Lawyers when they have to travel anywhere to represent them. This is going to get restricted due to this epidemic situation.
• Lawyers will have to address this situation by listing their matters in the courts by appearing on their matters using Video conferencing technologies. Although impossible at times, a sincere effort should be made in order to use this wherever possible.
• Online Notary services, Court fees, and Stamp duty- These services are provided by the stamp vendors, notaries, etc. They are going to get impacted with fewer people visiting courts and filing cases. They can work with Marketplace providers to facilitate the selling of online forms or help clients to attest & verify their petitions.
• Restricted Travel and stay- With this outbreak, there is going to be less and restricted travel for the Lawyers who often have to travel to different locations to appear for their matters. This restriction will also be imposed for clients who live away in faraway places where the matter is posted.

Clients and Lawyers can subscribe to any automated application like Legodesk which provides notifications on the next hearing date well in advance to plan their travel.

A situation like this pandemic is going to impact the Legal Industry for sure. It is high time that Law firms and Lawyers embrace this change and adopt technology in delivering their services as much as possible. Technology is a tide that has impacted many industries in the past and surely, the domain of Law cannot isolate itself from it.

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