IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON LEGAL SERVICES
“Time, however tough it, may change. We must learn the ability of embracing change”
- COVID-19 crisis has underscored the need for legal industry to embrace technology and work remotely. Law firms and lawyers have been adopting new technologies. The pandemic, which has been affecting nearly every aspect of business and society, has not spared the legal profession either. The world has seen that the vision and work potential of Indians are immense. When the Government of India challenged 130 crores, people, for 21 days lockdown, with few exceptions, the whole population supported the government to stop the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown has now been extended to 39 days and almost all citizens are supporting. The world began to learn from Indians in different ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. There will rarely be any economic area escaping the Covid-19 influence. This is affecting the legal framework of every country. Therefore, a proactive approach is needed to insulate the legal system from possible breakdowns and Lawyers need to look at this from a different perspective.
- In normal days, courts are mostly overcrowded with people including lawyers, litigants and other supporting staff. The court norms and procedures have been undergoing drastic changes during the lockdown. Judges are being given more powers to device ways for speedy trials. The impact of the lockdown is felt by all stakeholders. The legal culture, structural, economic, delivery patterns, and self-regulation are all affected. The pandemic has opened the doors for gradual transformation of various platforms for all stakeholders. It will change the legal culture in India with or without the support from establishment. Automation will change the way of how the industry functions.
BANG ON ADVOCATES:
- In the coming days, courts around the world, including India, will be caught in many cases such as manpower rationalization (retrenchments), closures of business units, disruptions in supply chains and non-performance of contracts, calling off projects, implementation delays and what have you. That can add to the existing massive pendency of cases at various courts, breakdown in commercial activities, loss of livelihood, etc. Therefore cases emanating due to Covid-19 breakout will further increase the pendency of cases in the courts. Alternative dispute settlement mechanisms like arbitration, conciliation and mediation should have resorted and lawyers should also be involved in settling the cases arising out of Covid-19 breakout, particularly relating to tenancy, employment, deferment of loans and interest chargeable thereof. There should be finality for the cases decided and higher courts should be approached with an appeal only under exceptional cases. Special courts and benches also can be considered across the country to handle cases arising due to Covid-19 breakout, commercial cases and other related ones.
- Appointment of lawyers under Arbitration, Forum, Special Proficiency and Assistant as mentioned above can create new opportunities for lawyers to handle the working as part of the judicial system this must be considered by the Government and the Hon’ble High Court as well as the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India to promote Arbitrations in commercial disputes, to appoint lawyers and attorneys, solicitors as assistants to the Learned Judges and take over some part of the administration at the cost of the litigants. Appointing Lawyers as Arbitrators who have more than 15 years of experience or expertise in any subject and to establish a platform for lawyers to settle cases in respect of various matters such as civil / tax/customers/workers/services / various tribunals, an alternative options should also be considered for settlement of pending cases by classifying these cases at cost of litigants. This will give lawyers a new opportunity to work and help the government to resolve pending cases, facilitate easier and quicker decision-making. In most cases, it is important to give the lawyers an opportunity to be in support with the judiciary to help reduce pendency of cases.
- The lawyers now need to be computer savvy. One possibility or prediction is that the Hon’ble Supreme Court and Government of India will introduce new rules and allow some pending cases to be run through video conferences, even in the district court, some cases can be allowed to run through video conferencing, so lawyers will have to adopt many new technologies, such as faster internet services, laptops, video software, zoom, skype and many more.
- If some court proceedings are carried out through Video conferencing by the Hon’ble Court, working of lawyers from their office will save time, money and energy spent due to disruptive roads, traffic, waiting for the hearing. That in almost any city, if the parties and the lawyers could work or attend court hearing from their office, then there will be many benefits and it will save paper cost, it will help environment damage by reducing pollution and also lead to cleaner air in the city.
PROCEDURAL ASPECTS TO BE CHANGED
- Every crisis brings in its wake opportunities. COVID-19 breakout can be leveraged to bring about greater use of technology in the legal system from the apex court to the grassroots layers of the legal system. A limited experiment is being done in Supreme Court and High Courts for the introduction of technology to make access to the system easy and affordable to the litigants. For instance, the Supreme Court and some High Courts are hearing important cases through a virtual medium. This has to be intensified and widened so as to equip every court with the right technology and bandwidth to facilitate the process. This also requires, among other things, the following:
- Larger allocation of outlay specifically for technology upgradation, which can reduce the pendency of cases drastically.
- Overhaul of the entire legal ecosystem to equip the judiciary and legal fraternity, particularly at the District courts with the knowledge of handling technology and use of visual platforms for filing cases, arguments, authentication of documents, presenting evidence etc. it may also require amendments to the Evidence Act, acceptance of e-authentication, e-signatures, etc. This also calls for drastic changes in the Indian Criminal and Civil Procedure Acts.
- Importantly, in the entire chain of events, the litigant – the common man – should be an active participant and he should be able to watch the court proceedings through virtual media, get intimation of the hearing well in time, daily rulings not being present in the court.
- Importantly, the digital platforms should not be subjected to hacking, cyber threats and manipulations by vested interests. There should be strong cyber security systems in place.
- Use of technology is not a low hanging fruit. Considerable work has to be done in integrating and linking systems, data, harmonizing procedures, creating digital structures that are user friendly. For instance, in the US, the idea of induction of technology started over a decade back through meticulous planning to create an ecosystem, which is comprehensive and taking care of all possible disruptions the system can cause. India can borrow from the US system the automation methodology and innovation trail instead of reinventing the wheel.
RECONSIDERING EXISTING LAWS
- Covid-19 breakout also necessitates an amendment to a number of existing laws to make them contextual to the changes that are conceived. Indian Contract Act, Indian Evidence Act, IPR, Indian Labour Act, Indian Disaster Management Act, Indian Epidemics Act, etc. are some of the legislations that need a review to align with the perceived changes in the economic and legal framework.
- The crisis that the world in general and our country is facing due to the rapid and seemingly uncontrollable spread of coronavirus is not only unprecedented in contemporary times but also extremely damaging on multiple fronts. Almost the whole world, barring certain exceptions, is in lock- down and only essential services are allowed to function and operate. We are more than certain that mankind would be able to successfully treat the novel coronavirus and get rid of the present crisis soon, however, the immense and incomprehensible damage which this crisis is sure to cause before it passes must be considered with a view of mitigating and alleviating the resulting conditions. We don’t know how the world would look in the aftermath of COVID-19. Certainly, many things would undergo a drastic transformation, from our eating habits to hygiene and lifestyle, however, how we embrace these changes – is the million-dollar question. It is an undisputed fact that sudden changes bring their own diversified challenges, which, in the present case, would surely be multi-faceted and far-reaching. We would be wrong if we are only envisaging the financial turmoil and economies collapsing. The world has contended with many such financial exigencies in the past as well only with a confined and focused goal to emerge from such financial crisis. However, this time, things would be entirely different. The challenges in terms of psychological and sociological behaviour pertaining to the entire human race would be more troubling and perplexing in its enormously diverse ambit. The very definition and essence of globalisation is sure to take a cataclysmic blow. Countries across the globe would revisit their policies, financial and political, pertaining to globalisation. In the post COVID-19 future, we should expect more inflexible and complex policies to take the front seat.
- In this way, Covid-19 breakout is going to have a big impact on the field of law and all lawyers need to be tech-savvy and computer savvy and the government should provide opportunities for the lawyers in the field of the judiciary in different forms as mentioned above. I would like to bring the attention of Executive and Judiciary to consider the above matters and with the coordination of Law Commission, a serious consideration of the above effects should be studied and a report is required to be submitted to Government so as to convert this into rule of law.
- Law firms and individual lawyers must be fully prepared themselves for the rough road ahead. Though the litigation, as well as non-contentious work, is steadily bound to increase post COVID 19, however, they must be vigilant that this rising volume of work would not match their expectation and receipt of revenue. It is high time for the management of law firms to ponder upon this restructuring aspect which could balance the interests of all stakeholders. We have to keep in mind that every year thousands of law graduates join the profession and they have to be suitably placed amid this crisis. We need to generate this confidence in clients that like other sectors, the legal sector is also prepared to face the challenges. We have to further ensure that the quality of legal support, in the absence of huge revenue, is not compromised. We have to scrutinize and identify the prospective cost cutting avenues while ensuring that employees of law firms and working advocates aren’t subjected to unduly harsh measures. Above all, we have to take them into confidence.
Authored by:
Adv. Swati Singh
Associate-Legal
