Legally India is starting the first competition to find India's best legal blogger with a total prize fund of Rs 1 lakh, regular paid writing gigs and more for winners. Do you have what it takes?

We have received numerous requests from people who want to write or contribute to Legally India, so now is your chance to do so.

[Note - we are in the process of updating the categories. In short, lawyer and student blogs will be judged against each other and not be judged in separate categories. That means there is a greater prize pool for the genuinely best blogs overall. We will update shortly.]

Competing is simple:
1. Log in or create a free account on the site.
2. Start blogging to automatically get your posts published and featured in the right-hand colum on LegallyIndia.com.
3. Keep blogging until 31 July 2010.

Throughout the competition we will selectively feature and summarise the best blogs and posts and introduce some of the more popular authors.

After 31 July 2010 we will use a combination of reader voting, blog popularity and critical judgment to whittle down a shortlist and ultimately select winners in each category.

There are separate categories for practising lawyers and law students.

Blogs written by law students:

• Best blog (Rs 15,000 cash award)
• Runner-up blog (Rs 10,000)
• Highly commended blog (Rs 5,000)
• Best single blog post (Rs 5,000)
• Best blog written on behalf of a student group or organisation (Rs 15,000 for benefit of group or organisation)

Blogs written by practising lawyers:

• Best blog (Rs 30,000 cash award to author or donation to charity of author's choice, to be decided and divided at author's discretion)
• Runner-up blog (Rs 20,000 cash award to author or donation to charity of author's choice, to be decided and divided at author's complete discretion)

We will read all blogs and the best bloggers may also be offered paid blogging or freelance writing gigs on Legally India in future, or full- or part-time jobs, if interested.

Winners will also be interviewed, profiled and featured on Legally India, if interested.

We also hope to add other perks for the best bloggers in future. If you are a law firm or other organisation that would like to co-sponsor the competition by providing internships or other benefits to winners, please let us know.

General rules:

1. Publish only original content that is well-written, relevant and useful to readers. All content must be related to India and law. This will be strictly enforced in the case of posts that fall widely foul of these criteria.
2. Absolutely NO content that is primarily advertising, advertorial or promotional. This will be strictly enforced.
3. You can blog under your real name or anonymously. We will not reveal your real name, beyond what is visible to other members on your Legally India profile.
4. If you are already hosting a blog you may contemporaneously duplicate content from your existing blog or website on Legally India and link back to it but only if the content satisfies the rest of these rules.
5. If you are writing about real people be mindful about your legal liabilities. We will take action on reasonable take-down requests about posts that are alleged to be defamatory. All actions we take will be in accordance with our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
6. Adhere to our terms and conditions, to which the entire competition is subject to.

Eligibility rules:

1. To be eligible in the best blog categories, your blog must be updated regularly and must have been started between 1 January and 31 July 2010.
2. The law student category is eligible to all those currently studying a law or law-related undergraduate or postgraduate course at the time of the blog's first post, as long as the student and/or course have a nexus to India.
3. The practising lawyer category is open to lawyers of all nationalities and qualifications, as long as they or their practice have a nexus to India at the time of the blog's first post.
4. The blog's main language must be English although Hindi, Latin and other languages may be used in parts.
5. All the above are subject to final determination by Legally India but we promise that all decisions will be taken as transparently as possible.

The blogs will be judged on the criteria of quality of writing and quality of content.

Since this is the first such competition we may reasonably modify the rules and criteria somewhat if compelling enough arguments are made or circumstances require it. We will finalise the judging process later in the competition.

If you have any questions, please post a message in the new blogging forum and we will be happy to respond. Alternatively, please email us directly.

If you are a legal blogger or want to become one, also join our social network blogging group.

For inspiration and tips on what to blog about, read this forum post.

For a short guide on how to write a good blog, read this post.

And above all, have fun and happy blogging!

Update: We have changed the cash prize in the practising lawyer category to be awarded to a charity or to the author directly or both, at the author's absolute discretion. We will keep details of the author's choice confidential although we will publish names of charities selected.