Published Paper Details:

Legal profession is a profession of great honour and noble one. Generally, people approach an advocate not only for seeking justice or remedy against any unfairness they have faced but also to avoid taking law into their hands and fight on their own. In India with the opening up of the economy and globalization legal profession has grown and there are law firms in almost every city with individual advocates practicing on their own. The Advocates Act, 1961 deals with the legal profession and the Bar Council of India framed rules pertaining to standards of conduct and professional etiquette for advocates. Bar Councils are empowered to deal with disciplinary proceedings against an advocate who violates the rules and commits any professional or other misconduct. When a legal practitioner fails to discharge his duties properly towards a client, may be found to have been negligent. The Advocates Act does not deal with the disputes between the clients and the advocates if the clients seek a remedy of damages or refund of money paid to the advocates. In this circumstance the absolute immunity to the advocates for their professional negligence will not only affect the client's confidence in them but also society as a whole. Hence in this article the author, with perception of professional negligence of advocates in general, analysis how the existing remedies available to aggrieved clients are inadequate in dealing with negligence by advocates and the application of the Consumer Protection Act to legal practitioners. The author also makes suitable suggestions to provide remedy to the aggrieved clients in case of professional negligence by legal professionals without undermining the dignity of legal profession.