Legally Direct - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Client FAQs
How can Legally Direct help me find a good lawyer?
Legally Direct is operated by Legally India, which is India’s largest news website for Indian lawyers with over 1 lakh visitors per month. Thousands of practising advocates and lawyers will therefore see your case, ensuring you will receive a high quality of applications.
Do you have a legal problem, query or case?
You might think you need legal help, but not every problem actually needs a lawyer.
How much does Legally Direct cost?
Legally Direct is completely free for clients to use - we make money by asking lawyers to pay us a monthly subscription fee to bid for your legal work.
When you find a good lawyer whom you want to instruct, you will pay them directly for their services at the rates you have agreed.
So, before diving in, ask yourself: is your problem important enough to you, to spend some money on a lawyer?
Lawyers are professionals who make their living by their expert knowledge and advice they give. While a few lawyers might be happy to chat to you for free for a few minutes, most might not be happy to give their service away for free. In any case, sooner or later, a lawyer will start charging you for their services. Be prepared.
Are you aware of the risks?
Litigation is a minefield, and things often go wrong. You could end up not winning your case. You could potentially even end up having to pay the other side. And you may be in it for the long haul.
Do you know how long cases can take?
Infamously, litigation in India can take anything from days (in very rare cases), to years and even decades sometimes. Always think about whether the potential time investment of litigation will be worth it.
Advocate FAQs
How do I sign up?
You can sign up in less than five minutes. You just need your state bar council enrolment number, which we will corroborate. Within three days you will also need to send us a picture or scan of your bar council enrolment card, which you can submit online or via email.
How much does it cost?
Legally Direct is currently free to use but we will eventually charge flat subscription fees.
What happens if a client gives me a bad rating?
You can dispute bad reviews. Legally Direct will liaise between you and the client to come to a resolution. If we can not resolve your disagreement, you may get your account and all reviews deleted from the site, but you will not be able to use Legally Direct for a period of at least six months.
Am I allowed to use Legally Direct under the Advocates Act? Is this not advertising?
No, quite the contrary. We have spoken to a number of senior lawyers for interpretations of the Advocates Act [link] to ensure Legally Direct complies fully within existing regulations.
In essence, Legally Direct is a platform for clients to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) or tenders to lawyers (similar to what public sector undertakings (PSUs) do when they take out an ad in a newspaper asking for advisers, for example). In other words, clients are directly soliciting and requesting lawyers to pitch to them.
Advocates merely respond to such requests.