‘Lawyers are snatchers’
There are reports that some lawyers approach victims or family-members of victims of road-accidents assuring of getting monetary-compensation through courts. These lawyers get bank-accounts of probable beneficiaries of compensation opened in banks of lawyers' choice with blank withdrawal-forms signed in advance together with other papers to be signed for litigation-purpose. First strategy of such lawyers is to bargain with accused ones to settle for low compensation after their being bribed by the accused. In the meanwhile such lawyers go on receiving fees from victims and/or their families in name of litigation-expenses even though they get litigation-papers signed in name of free social-service.

But most tragic part of strategy of such lawyers is that they virtually snatch cheques from hands of beneficiaries just after beneficiaries are given cheques by presiding judicial-officers, in name of these cheques to be verified and checked for correctness. This tactics of lawyers makes useless the precautions incorporated in the system whereby rules now provide giving cheques in hands of beneficiaries only. Such lawyers then manage to receive compensation-money blank withdrawal-forms already got signed blank in advance.

System should be changed whereby cheques may be sent through registered or speed post only at door-steps of beneficiaries with proof of address verified through some proper and authenticated identification put up at the court file, rather than cheques being given in the courts. These cheques must not have any mention of bank-account so that beneficiary may be at liberty to deposit these in any of the bank-branch rather than at a particular bank-branch desired by his lawyer to avoid any chance of money-withdrawal through pre-signed withdrawal-forms.

Special help-desks with proper publicity should be opened in district-courts where victims of such forgery by lawyers may be able to lodge complaints. Such cases of some miscreant lawyers tend to defame legal profession.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
New Delhi

Frontier
Vol. 47, No. 15, Oct 19 - 25, 2014