Latest

Home Current Legal Issues Litigation Basics Litigation Practice Practice & Procedure Trial Court Practice How to Read Current Legal Issues for Litigation Practice (LITIGATION BASICS 6)

How to Read Current Legal Issues for Litigation Practice (LITIGATION BASICS 6)

August 19, 2023
Read


The law is dynamic subject and it evolves continuously with passage of time. The legislation and Judiciary are two primary sources of law. The Parliament enacts and amends the law and the Judiciary gives interpretation to law. The legal practitioner has to look at current development of law and understand its application to practice. The Law students and Junior Lawyers always face issue with updating oneself with current legal knowledge. There are plenty of sources and judgements available and choosing right one is confusing and ultimately results into wastage of time.


(A) IMPORTANCE OF READING CURRENT LEGAL ISSUES

(1) Knowledge of Current Legal Issues has its own advantages. Legal practitioner must require to update oneself with current legal issues of their practice area.

(2) Legal practitioner must aware about latest laws and amendments.

(3) The Judgements of Supreme Court and High Courts are laws of land. Study of latest judgements and understanding it’s applicability is crucial for legal practice.

(4) Apart from study of Laws and Judgements, understanding of various social, political and economic issues and their impact on law is helpful for developing practice.

(B) HOW TO READ CURRENT LEGAL ISSUES –

(1) Choose your practice area –

Browsing everything has no meaning. Choose your practice area and first learn basics knowledge of it.

Example – If you are interested in criminal law, then fist learn basics of various aspects of criminal law. Acquaint yourself with knowledge of IPC, CrPC and Special statutes.

There are other practice areas like civil and commercial law. You can relates points discussed in this Article to your practice area.  

(2) Divide practice area into sub areas –

Continue from previous example, criminal law practice includes trial practice before magistrate and session court and appellate practice before High Courts and Supreme Court. Also criminal practice specialises into General Criminal Law like offence against human body and property, Special statutes such as Crime against women’s and children’s, Economic offences (White collar Crimes) etc.

(3) Understand the key points of your area of practice –

Continue from previous example, Criminal law practice require more focus on some areas like framing of charges, relevancy of evidence, examination of witnesses, special rules of evidence in special statutes etc. Also there are different approach require in handling of miscellaneous applications like Application for Bail and Anticipatory bail etc.

(4) Develop Reading and research Skill –

Reading and Research of law and judgments is important task for legal practitioners. Law students and Junior Lawyers must develop reading and research skills. Reading of judgment is an art and it develop through continuous practice.

(5) Understand the relevancy and application of Current legal issues with Practice Area –

When any current legal issues comes, then first understand its relevancy and application with your practice area.  

Example –

(a) Relevancy of newly enacted statutes or amendments in existing statutes –

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 reduced juvenile age from 18 to 16. This amendment Act created significant impact on criminal justice system. Legal practitioner handling cases of juveniles has to be aware about this development.

(b) Relevancy of latest judgments comes from Supreme Court or High Court –

Recently Supreme Court Constitutional Bench in Neeraj Datta Vs State of NCT Delhi (2022) observed that there is no legal bar to raise a conviction upon a “hostile witness” testimony if corroborated by other reliable evidence.

It is important judgment for understanding scope of S. 154 of the Evidence Act.

(6) Maintain Notes –

Reading and remembering everything is difficult task hence maintain your notes and regularly update it. You can also create digital notes using evenote or onenote apps. Also you can save judgments on Google Drive for easy access.

(C) LIST OF IMPORTANT WEBSITES

For Accessing updated Bare Acts

  • India Code - India Code is repository of all Central Acts and Rules.
  • Bombay HC (For State of Maharashtra Acts) - All Acts enacted by Maharashtra State are available on this link.
  • SCC Online 

For accessing Judgements

For Current Legal Updates

Tags :

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )
Powered by Blogger.