Beware of fake lawyers: Bar council members

  • Rahul Sinha
  • Feb 16, 2017
  • 3 min read
Beware of fake lawyers: Bar council members

Trustworthy credentials for lawyers and bar council members are the bedrock of a functioning legal system

For any system to function properly, we need to be able to trust and accept the parameters on which it is based. Lack of trust leads to people going down the wrong route or spending time and money to verify.

For example, take the legal system. We go to the courts to seek redressal of a wrongdoing or crime and the court takes into account the evidence that is presented and arrives at a conclusion. To better present our case, we take the help of lawyers. Our expectation is that they will be able to better understand the details of the case and will be able to present arguments in a cogent and professional manner. In do so because expect that they have undergone the required rigor to obtain their qualification and have the necessary knowledge and expertise.

But what if the lawyers are not what they claim to be — would that not undermine the entire judicial process ? This recent news article has raised these doubts:

IndiaLawyersFake

https://www.thequint.com/india/2017/01/23/almost-half-of-indian-lawyers-are-fake-says-bar-council-of-india-fake-degrees-chief-justic-of-india-khehar

Here’s an article from the US which shows that the problem is not just in the developing world:

USALawyersFake

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/us/fake-lawyers-and-notaries-prey-on-immigrants.html

Can one imagine the extent of the rot in the system? What hope would a common person have of getting justice in this scenario?

This not only puts the entire judicial system at risk but also undermines the efforts of the genuine lawyers and legal professionals who work hard sincerely to represent their clients for justice.

There may be several underlying issues to be addressed in the legal system but let me touch upon the just the aspect of verifying the credentials of the legal representatives themselves.

Thankfully we have a simple mechanism to do this — all documents and certificates stating the credentials can have a secure QR code (like the one provided by our company Qryptal) which is affixed at the time of generation and signed by the private key of the issuing authority (Law Universities, Bar Councils and so on).

The public (or any authority) looking to verify the authenticity of the information can simply scan with a trusted application on their smartphone for instant validation .

CheckLawyersAuthenticity
  • The app does the digital signature verification and presents on the screen key details of the document itself e.g — name of the person, date of birth, date of issuance of the credential, validity period (if applicable) etc.

  • We can even have a photo for necessary verification and matching.

  • Such a solution can be used on bar council issued identity cards for registered members making it simple for anyone to instantly verify the credentials of the lawyer.

This can help to distinguish between the genuine professionals from the imposters and increase the faith of the public in the system. It also helps to improve its efficiency and effectiveness as only those with the appropriate credentials will be able to practise law and help their clients. Such a verification process and system has applications in other areas too but more on that in future posts.

Why wait? It is easy to integrate Qryptal
Take the first step today!

feature image feature image