Date time

Fees

INR 1,000 (all-inclusive)

Dates of first workshop June 00 and June 00

Timing

June 00: 00 pm - 00 pm

June 00: 0 pm - 0 pm

Who is this for?

Law students looking for a career in commercial disputes, corporate litigation, banking and finance laws

Lawyers who want to work at law firms in commercial disputes and corporate litigation teams or as in-house counsel with banks or NBFCs.

Independent lawyers looking to get recovery work from banks, NBFCs and fintech companies.

In-house counsels who frequently deal with cheque and NACH mandate bouncing cases.

Why is it necessary to learn about cheque bounce cases?

Are you a lawyer? While cheque bounce work has always been an easy way to get independent clients, in the post-covid post-lockdown world, payment defaults and cheque bounces will increase further as businesses face liquidity issues and a massive recession.
There is a tremendous increase in cheque as well as NACH default matters. Corporate and individual clients need legal assistance in dealing with these. There will be increased demand for lawyers who can work on these matters.
Are you a law student? Do you want to build a career in litigation or work in a litigation firm, or with a senior? Are you finding it difficult to obtain internships? Cheque dishonour work can be quickly learnt by you to prove your mettle.
Electronic payments are not excluded - ECS/ NACH payments are covered by the same laws as that of cheque bounce. Learning how to deal with these defaults will increase your employability as well as appeal to potential clients.
What about the post dated cheques (PDCs) that you give for quite a few payments - what can you do if there’s a slippage in maintaining the balance, your cheque bounces and you receive a notice for payment? How would you draft a reply?
These are very lucrative matters because if you are able to recover payments, clients are very happy to remunerate you for your efforts. Many small law firms and independent lawyers are able to build a practice rapidly around this kind of work.
Cheque bounce litigation work is a ‘gateway service’ for a lawyer - it enables a lawyer to put a ‘foot in the door’, while dealing with new clients. If you show some initial results, a client will be happy to give you more complex and high-value work.

Some things you’re thinking about cheque bounce cases which are not true

There will not be many cases to work on, because most people are using net-banking these days. Okay, how about the PDCs you give for some of your loan repayments? Or your society maintenance payments? What if you’re a lawyer advising a society? Cheques are the most common form of security provided these days, and cheque bounce cases are dozen a dime. Also, NACH mandate (electronic payment such as ECS) bouncing is treated in the same way as a cheque bounce and can be prosecuted in the same way.
The work is low-paying, and one needs to rely on volumes. Not if you’re dealing with high value cheques - like payments towards under construction properties or multiple cheques given as security for loan repayment.
The work is relatively ‘easy’ and there is not much scope for value addition to clients. This is a mistaken belief - in any cheque bounce case, there is a risk of non-bailable warrants being issued and arrest of directors. The complainant is looking for a quick settlement from the defendant owing to threat of arrest of the defendant’s directors, while the defendant is looking to avoid arrest, delay proceedings or question the debt itself. The work is outcome-oriented and clients are interested in engaging lawyers who can provide results. This requires lawyers from both sides, that is, the complainant or the defendant’s side, to handle the matter skilfully. An untrained lawyer is prone to making mistakes which delays the outcome or heavily costs the client.
Competition for working on cheque bounce cases is very high - I cannot charge much and have to keep my fees low to get clients, which is unsustainable. There is a lack of skilled lawyers in the market and if you provide quick results, you can be remunerated for your time and earn reasonable margins. Further, as this is a gateway service, a satisfied client will give you more complex and high-paying work.

If you’re good with Section 138 matters, what is the kind of work that you can get?

Primarily, you will get work-related to cheque dishonour and ECS/ NACH (i.e. electronic payment dishonour). The work can be of the following kinds

Pre-litigation advisory work from startups and small businesses on recovery-related matters.
Litigation briefs from independent clients (suppliers or defaulters).
Retainers from banks, financial institutions and other companies to work on cheque bounce cases on a volume-basis in a specific court.

If you are working for the complainant’s side your objective is to secure arrest or settlement. If you are working for the defendant’s side your objective is to avoid arrest through various strategies or settle the dispute at a lower point.

As you handle these matters, you will also keep an eye on adding more skillsets and taking up different and more high-margin work from existing clients as they are satisfied with your results.

If you’re able to recover the funds that the founder is so desperately looking for, you will be the go-to person for him for other matters as well. This is a gateway service for many other legal matters, especially lucrative commercial litigation.

Who are likely to be your clients?

Suppliers: Often in cases where a business has defaulted in payments to one supplier, they have done so for others too. You may be able to secure matters from many unpaid suppliers of the same delinquent customer. Once you produce results for one client, they will refer many others to you, given the nature of the work.
Banks, financial institutions and NBFCs: You may be able to represent financial institutions, banks or NBFCs which take cheques as a security against amounts lent. These are likely to have multiple cases of default and even if you are able to represent one such bank, NBFC or financial institution, you can earn a significant amount without having to spend a lot of time and effort in looking for further clients.
Large manufacturing companies: Similarly, large manufacturing corporate entities which provide goods and services and which accept payments through cheques or accept payments on credit (on the security of post-dated cheques) will have many such matters.
Startups and SMEs: Sometimes, smaller entities which have a lower negotiating power cannot dictate the mode of payments and may have to accept payments in the form of post dated cheques. Such funds may also be very crucial for such small businesses.

What do your clients desire?

An affordable lawyer with clear understanding of the steps involved who will handle their matters diligently and competently.
This is one area of work where you do not have to grow grey hair before clients entrust their work to you.
Many clients have a lot of work and they are willing to try out new lawyers because they can’t overburden one lawyer with too many matters in the fear that the performance may drop due to too many matters being given to one lawyer.
Also, given that cases may have to be filed in different places all over the country, even if you are from smaller cities or districts you can get enough work (jurisdiction is where the cheque is presented to a bank branch). This means in-house counsels are looking for lawyers who can help with these matters in many different places and can’t send all work to lawyers in a single city.
Clients also want regular updates, information about how the matter is progressing and diligent processing of the matters.
You will get many matters from outstation clients who are worried about getting arrested due to cheque bounce matters and you will basically have to represent them to get a settlement done and close out a matter.

What kind of fees can you expect while dealing with a Section 138 matter

Even as someone who has recently taken up practice, this is one area you can pick up and expect to earn INR 5000 to INR 10000 for drafting a legal notice for dishonour of cheque depending on the client, place of filing a case and the recoverable at stake.

For filing a complaint you can expect to earn further INR 10000-15000 and even further fees for attending a hearing depending upon the state you are in. In all, you can expect to earn INR 50000 over the course of the proceedings if the recoverable is north of 5 lakhs, which is a pretty decent amount for someone in the initial stages of practice to get from one specific matter.

If the recoverable is of a lesser amount, clients may not be willing to pay this much per matter.

However, if you are handling multiple matters from the same client such as a bank or NBFC, you may be able to earn a good amount simply on the basis of the number of matters.

In this kind of work, you should definitely target a volume of work because large volumes create efficiency and economy of scale as matters often have very similar facts.

Though you will have to be aware of exactly how to draft the notice and complaint and pay attention to the timelines, and act in a very precise manner with great diligence, these matters are neither laborious nor time consuming. Compared to a standard civil litigation or writ petition matter, drafting, research work, number of hearings and arguments involved in a cheque bounce case would likely be far lesser.

This ensures higher margin for you as you can do more matters.

You can also get monthly retainership from businesses having many cheque bounce cases in the same court.

How will you equip yourself fully to deal with Section 138 matters?

Learn step by step how to draft the notice of dishonour of cheque and the complaint without any goof ups

Of course you can find lots of formats online, but none will tell you where exactly you can slip up in the drafting of the notice, thus giving an opportunity to the opposite party to get your complaint dismissed.

It is simply inadequate when you are dealing with real life cases which stand the possibility of imprisonment or a big financial setback for a client.

You need to be able to know what you need to include in the notice and how to ensure that it is delivered appropriately so that you have adequate evidence for everything. You must know every single document that you need to attach to the complaint.

If you make an error in issuing the notice (for example, if the cheque has been issued on behalf of a Company but notice has been sent only to the director who is the signatory to the cheque; or you file a complaint against a director without issuing the notice to the company; or making the company a party), this can become a fatal error. Therefore, you need

You can get such step by step guidance very quickly through this workshop.

Attend live online classes to interact with practitioners, get briefed on how to perform real work and ask doubts

There is no substitute for face-to-face learning from real interactions with practitioners who have worked on client matters. Attend 5 hours of live sessions to learn how to perform the work step-by-step. Interact with experts and ask questions to cement your learning. You can watch the recordings later also if you miss any part or need to revisit something. Access will remain with you for 1 month.

Develop confidence by performing practical drafting exercises and application of skills to life-like situations

What you have learned in theory may not be of any value unless you can put it to use reliably. For this, practice in simulated scenarios is important.

Airline pilots perform on-ground flight simulations, martial artists develop strength through practice on punching bags and mock fights, and cricketers practice in the nets to improve.

Similarly, in our courses, you get the opportunity to apply your learning to simulated drafting and strategy assignments.

Improve through personalized feedback and corrections from evaluators

One cannot always see one’s own blind spots. The best athletes, CEOs, and professionals need coaches to improve their game and take it to the next level.

What if you could receive line-by-line corrections and feedback on your drafts from a trained evaluator? Would it help you to improve and perform better next time?

Every learner has the opportunity to get corrections and line-by-line feedback on every assignment submitted. This is a very personalized method of feedback.

Our students have cited this facility to be the most beneficial for their skill development.

Training Methodology

Access to study materials with templates through our online learning management system (LMS), Android and iOS app (access will remain active for 1 month)

One 3-hour and one 2 hour live classes will be held (recordings available to those who miss the class).

You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in class.

Classes will be held over 2 consecutive days from 7-10 pm on day 1 and 7-9 pm on day 2.

Practical drafting exercises for key documents

Group feedback in classroom and in-line evaluator feedback

List of Weekly Exercises

Day 1: How to draft a legal notice and a reply to the legal notice

Exercise 1: How to draft a notice in the event of a cheque bounce

Exercise 2: How to draft a reply to the legal notice

Day 2: How to file a Complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and seek interim reliefs.

Exercise 1: How to draft a complaint under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

Exercise 2: How to draft an application for interim compensation

Syllabus

SYLLABUS

Chapter: How to draft a notice in respect of matters under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881?

Pointers for drafting notice under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (NI Act)
Timelines for filing a legal notice, reply notice and filing a complaint.
How to draft a reply to the notice.

Chapter: Liability of directors and management under NI Act

Liability of executive, non-executive, nominee directors and independent directors
Directors’ insurances and indemnity

Chapter: How to draft a Complaint under the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Requirements to be stated in a Consumer Complaint?
Filing a consumer complaint against a Company?

Chapter: Stages of Summary Proceedings

Summons
Warrant, in the event of non-service Non-bailable Warrant
Plea/ Framing of Charge
Complainant Evidence and cross examination (Documents commonly required for proving dishonour of cheque.)
313 Statement
Accused evidence and cross examination
Final arguments

Templates

Notice under Section 138 of NI Act.
Reply to notice.
Complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act.
Application seeking interim compensation under Section 143-A of the NI Act.
Settlement Agreement

Course Plan

Above prices are inclusive of all applicable taxes and charges.

Standard

RS. 1000 incl. of all charges

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INR 1,000 (all-inclusive) Date: June 18 and June 20

June 00: 0 pm - 00 pm

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enquiry

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How to deal with cheque bounce cases

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