Sir,

Appoint another advocate who will file fresh vakalatnama (power of attorney) on your behalf. On filing fresh vakalatnama, you may submit before the hon'ble court that you have changed your advocate.

There is no agreement signed by you as to fees payable to the advocate

2) you can send him letter by regd post that you do not want to engage his services any more and to furnish his nOC

3) if he refuses inform court that you do not want to engage the services of Lawyer

4) court would permit you to engage another lawyer

1. There is a Apex Court Judgement that lawyer can be changed without availing NOC from the eartlier lawyer.

2. However, see what does he state when you ask him to sign NOC on the fresh Vakalatnama without mentioning the name of your new lawyer (you can mention his name also if you so wish).

3. Avoid confontration with your present lawyer as long as possible.

There is no agreement signed by you wherein you agreed to pay x amount as demanded by the lawyer

Lawyer would not be able to recover the fees claimed by him

Hello,

If he charges exorbitant amount then you may file a complaint against him in the bar council of india for unethical practices.

If he does not sign the NOC then file an affidavit in the court and change your Advocate.

Regards

1. Ordinarily Advocates do not file any court case against their clients claiming unpaid fees for want of any pre-signed agreement.

2. If you manage to gat a fresh Advocate and he takes up the case, you can ask your earlier Advocate to charge reasonably as was agreed verbally by both of you and paid by you also earlier.

You can complaint before the state.bar council if he refuses to give NOC and charge hefty amount of money.

Sir if such situation arise then it can be mentioned before concerned court and a complaint for malpractice by advocate can be filed with state bar though give his reasonable fee he will give you NOC in very few cases advocates reacts adversely.

You have to obtain NOC from the Advocate on record to engage another advocate. But in even present advocate is refusing to give NOC you can

file your affidavit before the court expressing your willingness to change advocate.

1. No advocate can raise Bill of his choice. So there is nothing to worry about this unfounded apprehensions.

2. f he he indeed raises then inform the court and appoint a new advocate.

3. For setting his fees you can lodge complaint with the bar council.

Not at all but don't sign any paper even if he raises a bill keep silence and don't be confused and worry. If he insists then give an application to the Bar Association only and write only that you have given full money to him because it is never settled between you and him.

If the advocate does not give NOC then sign the fresh vakalatnama in favour of new lawyer and appear in the court personally with him. The court will take the new vakalatnama on record and allow you to engage the new lawyer. Nothing else is required.

Dear Madam,

Usually not advocate claiming actual fee as prescribed under law which is elaborated as under in judgment.

ADVOCATE FEE:

According to The Karnataka Civil Rules of Practice, 1967 the Advocate fee is calculated on the value or the subject matter of the suit, which shall be the same as prscribed by the Karnataka Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958,

For the determining the jurisdiction of the Court, according to the following scales: Suit Claim Above Rs.1,00, 000/- Rs..4,125/-+1 1/2(one and half) per cent on the amount which exceeds Rs.1,00,000/-

Now according to the suit property valuation of Rs.33,35,65,457/- the Advocate fee amounts to Rs.50,01,981/-.

Karnataka High Court

Shekhappa vs Assistant Commissioner And Land ... on 22 June, 2000

Equivalent citations: ILR 2000 KAR 3956

Bench: M Anwar

ORDER

1. This is decree-holder's revision directed against the Execution Court's order dated 5-6-1999 made in E.P. No. 538 of 1997 awarding him the Advocate's fee of Rs. 50/- only per cost towards the execution proceeding while declining his claim to the same at the rate of 50% of the Advocate's fee awarded on the original suit.

2. Admittedly, the reference Court under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act had passed an award in favour of the decree-holder in LAC No. 3 of 1988, dated 17-4-1995 awarding compensation of Rs. 18,65,441-20 for his lands acquired for the public purpose. That award was put to execution by him in the said E.P. No. 538 of 1997. Whole of the award amount is stated to have been, recovered from the judgment-debtors. As regards the Advocate's fee payable for the Counsel representing the decree-holder in the execution proceeding, an application was filed to award the same at Rs. 5,900/- in accordance with the relevant provisions under Rule 100(a) and (d) of the Karnataka Civil Rules of Practice, 1967. The Court below holding that the Advocate's fee has to be calculated per Rule 100(f)(i) of the said Rules, has awarded only Rs. 50/- on this Court.

3. In order to appreciate the validity or otherwise of the finding of the Court below in awarding the decree-holder's Advocate's fee payable in the said E.P. No. 538 of 1997, it is necessary to advert to the relevant provisions of Rule 100 of the Karnataka Civil Rules of Practice, 1976 which regulates scale of Advocate's fee payable in various legal proceedings. The material provisions of this rule are excerpted below:--

Rule 100(d) specifically deals with the scale of Advocate's fees payable in an execution case and it reads:

"100: Advocate's fee to be included in the costs awarded by Court to a party in any suit or other proceeding shall be computed in the manner prescribed hereunder-

(a) In original suits...

(b) In a Regular Appeal.. . .

(c) In Small Cause Suit. .. .

(d) In the Execution Case, the fee shall be calculated as follows:

(i) On the first application at 50 per cent of the fee calculated at the rate specified in clause (a) above on the amount of money or value of the relief claimed in the application.

(ii) No fee shall be payable on any subsequent application unless it is contested, in which case, the fee shall be calculated at 25 per cent of the fee calculated at the rate specified in clause (a) above on the amount of money or value of the relief claimed in the application".

4. In the instant case, it is an admitted fact that the execution petition was filed in E.P. No. 538 of 1997. An application was filed by the decree-holder for realisation of the award amount from the judgment-debtors who are respondents herein. Therefore, sub-clause (ii) of Rule 100(d) would not be attracted to the case on hand but it is sub-clause (i) thereof which is obviously applicable. Rule 100(a) lays down various scales of Advocate's fee payable in a suit proceeding depending upon the value of the subject-matter of the suit. The maximum limit of the fee payable as prescribed under Rule 100(a) states that if the market value or the subject-matter of the suit exceeds Rs. 1,00,000/-, then the Advocate's fee payable would be:

"Rs. 4,125/- + 1 1/2 per cent on the amount which exceeds Rs. 1,00,000/- subject to a maximum of Rs. 15,000/-".

5. A plain reading of the material provision in Rule 100(d)(i) makes it clear that the Advocate's fee payable in an execution case as prescribed by this provision is 50% of the scale of fees given in Rule 100(a). The award amount in question is Rs. 18,65,441-20. When the Advocate's fee calculated at the aforesaid prescribed rate, it works out to Rs. 15,304-20. But, the decree-holder has restricted his claim to Rs. 5,900/-. Therefore, but the Court below has misdirected itself in refusing to grant the same by erroneously resorting to the aid of Rule 100(f) which deals with the rate of Advocate's fee payable in respect of the proceedings other than the original suits, regular appeal, small causes suits, execution case and the execution appeal. Therefore, the impugned order cannot be sustained and the revision is entitled to succeed.

6. Hence, for the reasons aforesaid, the revision is allowed. The impugned order is set aside. The application filed by the petitioner (decree-holder) in E.P. No. 538 of 1997 on the file of the Court below is allowed granting him the Advocate's fee at Rs. 5,960/- as prayed therein. Parties to bear their own costs.

lawyer can demand commensurate with the services he has rendered

he cannot demand exorbitant fees

if he does not give a NOC, you can appoint another lawyer and request the new lawyer to file a chamber order in court for his appointment in your matter and to discharge the old lawyer

The bar council generally do not interfere in the fee charged by the advocate for his professional service.

If you would like to cahnge the lawyer you need not obtain NOC from previous lawyer as per supreme court's latest decision.

So you are at liberty to change the lawyer anytime as and when you feel like for the reasons you may rely upon and inform court about this and also may engage the services of a new lawyer without getting NOC from previous lawyer.

My sub-query is that if I appoint another lawyer, what if the earlier lawyer raises a bill for a huge amount claiming that the sum is due from me. Can he do it even if we didn't sign any fee agreement beforehand?

Generally no lawyer will do that, hence you dont become anxious about imaginary thoughts.

Asking this because, I hear similar stories from friends and relatives who've had a bad time fighting court cases.

You have been misinformed about this, a lawyer cannot demand exorbitant fee to give NOC, if you find that the demand is very exorbitant and unreasonable then you may make a complaint agaisnt this before the bar association in the local bar who will advise the lawyer to be considerate in this regard