Terms for Listed Advocates

1. Who these terms are for

These terms apply between Legal Space Services and every advocate whose particulars are published in the advocate section of this website, and to the use of the advocate login area. They are in addition to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Disclaimer.

2. Eligibility

To be listed and to keep a listing, you confirm on a continuing basis that:

• you are enrolled as an advocate with a State Bar Council under the Advocates Act, 1961, and your enrolment is current and not suspended;
• you hold a valid Certificate of Practice where your State Bar Council requires one, and you have complied with any verification requirement applicable to you;
• you are not under any disciplinary order that prevents or restricts you from practising;
• every particular you have given us — name, enrolment number, State Bar Council, year of enrolment, qualifications, areas of practice, courts, contact details — is true and correct; and
• you will tell us immediately if any of the above ceases to be true.

We verify enrolment particulars before publishing a profile and may re-verify at any time. We may ask for a copy of the enrolment certificate or Certificate of Practice.

3. Bar Council of India compliance

You acknowledge and agree that:

• your listing is published at your own request and is not an advertisement, solicitation, invitation or inducement by you or by us;
• the profile contains only the factual particulars permitted on a website under the proviso to Rule 36 in Section IV, Chapter II of Part VI of the Bar Council of India Rules;
• you will not ask us to publish, and we will not publish, any claim of superiority, promise or prediction of a result, success rate, client testimonial, rating, ranking, comparison with another advocate, or the name of a client or a case in which you have been engaged;
• you remain solely responsible for your own compliance with the Advocates Act, 1961, the Bar Council of India Rules and any rule or direction of your State Bar Council; and
• if your Bar Council, the Bar Council of India, or any court takes the view that any part of the listing is impermissible, you will tell us and we will amend or remove it at once.

4. What your profile may contain

Profiles are shown in a neutral order. Placement cannot be bought.

5. No fee sharing, and no listing fee

• your professional fee is agreed between you and your client;
• it is paid to you directly, in your own name;
• we do not collect it, hold it, invoice for it, or take any percentage, commission, referral fee or share of it; and
• we do not charge you a listing fee, a subscription or a lead fee.

Where we separately do documentation or filing work for the same client, we invoice that client for our own work only, and the two are kept apart on the record.

6. You are independent

You are an independent professional. Nothing in this arrangement creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, employment or master-and-servant relationship between you and Legal Space Services. You are not our employee, partner, agent or representative, and we are not yours. You are free to accept or decline any matter, to set your own fee, to work with anybody else, and to end this arrangement at any time.

We do not direct, control or supervise your professional work, and we do not hold ourselves out as being able to do so.

7. How a client reaches you

A client who reads your profile may send a consultation request. That request is passed to you because your stated area of practice matches the subject of the matter. This is an administrative routing step, not a recommendation, and we tell the client so.

You are under no obligation to accept any request. Before accepting, please carry out your own conflict check and satisfy yourself that you can act. A lawyer-client relationship arises only when you expressly accept the matter in your own name.

8. Your responsibilities

• keep your particulars accurate and tell us within 7 days of anything changing;
• respond to a client request within a reasonable time, or decline it, so the client is not left waiting;
• conduct every matter you accept in accordance with the Advocates Act, 1961, the Bar Council of India Rules and your professional obligations;
• maintain client confidentiality and privilege;
• do not use our name, logo or website to advertise yourself or to suggest that we endorse you;
• do not describe yourself as our employee, partner, agent or associate; and
• do not use client data received through this platform for any purpose other than the matter for which it was sent.

9. Your advocate login

Once your profile is approved, we may issue you a login to the advocate area, where you can see the client requests and orders that relate to you and keep your own profile up to date. The login is personal to you. You must keep the password confidential, change it when you first sign in, and tell us at once if you think somebody else has used it.

The advocate area is separated at the database level: you can see only your own clients and your own orders, and never another advocate's or a staff member's. Every login is recorded. Do not share the login with your staff or with anybody else; if you need a second login, ask us.

10. Client personal data

When we pass you a client's particulars, you receive personal data. In relation to it you agree to use it only for that matter, to keep it secure, not to disclose it except as the matter requires or the law compels, to erase it when it is no longer needed, and to tell us without delay if it is lost or disclosed. You are separately responsible under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 for the data once it is in your hands.

11. Suspension and removal

You may leave at any time. Write to us and your profile is taken down promptly, at no cost, and your login is closed.

We may suspend or remove a listing, with notice to you and with reasons, where:

• enrolment or a Certificate of Practice cannot be verified, or has lapsed or been suspended;
• a particular in the profile turns out to be incorrect;
• a Bar Council, a court or any authority directs it, or a disciplinary proceeding is pending that makes continuing inappropriate;
• the listing appears to us to be, or to have become, contrary to a professional rule; or
• there is a serious or repeated complaint about how client requests have been handled.

Removal from the listing is not a finding against you and we do not publish a reason. Where a complaint concerns professional conduct, we tell the complainant that the jurisdiction lies with your State Bar Council under Section 35 of the Advocates Act, 1961.

12. Liability

You are solely responsible for the advice you give, the manner in which you conduct a matter, the fee you charge and the outcome. We make no representation to any client about your work and accept no responsibility for it.

We are not liable to you for the volume or quality of client requests, for a client who does not proceed, for a fee a client does not pay, or for any loss of business. We give no exclusivity and no guarantee of any number of enquiries.

You agree to indemnify us against any claim brought against us arising from your professional work, from a particular you gave us that was incorrect, or from your breach of these terms.

13. General

• Changes. We may amend these terms. Where a change is material we tell listed advocates before it takes effect. Continuing to be listed means you accept it.
• No assignment. A listing is personal to you and cannot be transferred.
• Survival. Confidentiality, data protection, liability and indemnity continue after a listing ends.
• Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts at New Delhi have exclusive jurisdiction — without prejudice to the jurisdiction of a Bar Council over professional conduct, which is not affected by anything in this document.

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