The Bar Council of India (BCI), as an apex body of lawyers with valid licence to practice law, needs to crack the whip to pile on the heat on legal influencers, where apart from the spread of misinformation, the code of ethics of BCI were flouted.
Amrita S Nair, Advocate, Bombay High Court (HC), explained the BCI’s constraints in carrying out punitive action.
What are BCI’s constraints?
“Every advocate is a lawyer. However, to be sure, some lawyers choose not to practice in courts or do not register with the BCI,” Nair said.
Advocate Varsha Bhogle, partner, Deshmukh Bhogle Legal Associates, too, sprung to the BCI’s defence.
“Many of these legal influencers don’t have a licence. So, how can the BCI reprimand them? To make matters worse, the line is blurred between legal advice and general information,” Bhogle said.
The BCI is only empowered to take action against a legal practitioner, when the person is found to be at odds with law.
Read More: Rise of legal influencers and misinformation
Siddharth Chandrashekhar, advocate & counsel, Bombay HC, pointed out the lack of online regulation that could govern legal influencers on how to present or share information.
Pro-active role of social media firms
Nair urged social media companies to implement policies to identify and mitigate the spread of legal misinformation by authenticating legal content creators.
Rishabh Jain, co-founder, Labour Law Advisor (LLA) — a digital platform that highlights labour laws, personal finance, taxation, business ethics, scam awareness and investment — painted a rather pessimistic view. According to him, regulation would not be able to rein the legal influencers because it is humanly impossible to audit videos that are being uploaded daily. But it is easier to make the public aware how to identify the social media platforms that are in the right or at fault.
Read More: How legal influencers are breaching BCI Rules
Nair agreed with Jain. “Creating legal literacy among the general public can empower individuals to critically assess the information they consume and seek professional advice as and when necessary,” she said.
Bhogle also suggested a collaboration with social media platforms could help tide over the crisis. She also made another pertinent point: law colleges could add a chapter in their curriculum for students on the do’s and don’ts of influencer marketing in the legal arena. Nair endorsed Bhogle’s concept. “Law schools and universities can emphasise on the importance of dissemination of ethical information and prepare students to engage responsibly with the public.”
Amend Advocates Act, 1961?
Chandrashekhar suggested that amendments to the Advocates Act, 1961, could expand jurisdiction to penalise individuals misusing legal symbols or titles. “The BCI should establish a digital monitoring cell for prompt action,” he added.
The Advocates Act, 1961, grants the BCI jurisdiction only over enroled advocates. However, non-lawyers or unregistered legal influencers fall outside its purview, leaving a regulatory gap that allows misinformation to thrive.
“Public awareness campaigns highlighting the risks of misinformation are essential. Transparency in disciplinary actions against erring advocates can deter violations and restore public faith in legal professionals. The law must keep pace with the influencers,” Chandrashekhar said.
Nair said that the BCI must work in tandem with platforms that host legal content to ensure adherence to norms. The BCI, in consultation with the government, must formulate laws that penalise unauthorised legal practice, she said.
The BCI must update and enforce rules concerning advocates’ online conduct, ensuring that practicing lawyers who act as influencers uphold the highest standards of accuracy and ethics, she added.
How to tackle legal influencers
Akshat Pande, founder and managing partner, Alpha Partners, said that if lawyers themselves are dispensing legal information and running their own channels and publications, then they should make full disclosures that they are registered lawyers. They should display their certificates in a bid to ensure that the legal advice they are receiving is correct and that, too, is from a lawyer.
“Any legal advice given has to be in context of a particular set of facts. It cannot be general legal advice, and is not applicable in each and every case. If that is the case, then they should call it legal information or legal knowledge, which is generic in nature,” he said.
Nair said, “Influencers should explain the context, limitations, and applicability of laws rather than presenting them in absolute terms.”
Transparency holds the key
In most of the videos of the LLA — apart from Jain having portrayed himself being an engineer — whenever long-form videos that include comprehensive information are posted, the digital platform, typically, displays the source material on the screen. “Be it on provident fund or gratuity, the source material will be found on the screen. It could be a screenshot on Bare Acts, some formula, whatever is written in the law etc,” Jain said.
However, he highlighted that his purpose is to give people an idea whereby they can do more research around it. Because, ultimately, it comes to the viewers or users’ discretion as to how they use that information for themselves.
Jain, who holds a BTech and an MTech degree in civil engineering and structural engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, was also pursuing LLB. But he eventually dropped out of the course.
His grandfather and mother, who are lawyers, have been labour law consultants. His father is a civil engineer who is also a labour law consultant. Since his family was into labour law consulting for half a century, they insisted that Jain continue this tradition and join the family business.
As he began to read upon labour laws, he came up with an idea: why not make small videos along with it?
The LLA was conceived in 2017 by Jain and Mandeep Gill, a photographer and an amateur filmmaker, as per her Insta profile, as a digital platform for providing information on labour laws to employees and business owners.
Salaried employees are the primary audience of the LLA. Over time, the scope of providing information has expanded to include taxation, scam awareness, investment, business ethics and personal finance. For the first couple of years since inception, the LLA made 200 odd videos around labour laws where they interviewed lawyers, activists etc.
Other steps to curb legal influencers’ rise include rigorously fact-checking all content against official legal sources such as statutes, official gazettes, and authoritative judgements. They should avoid relying on secondary sources without any kind of authentication of the information.
“Laws and legal interpretations change frequently. Influencers should keep abreast of the latest legal developments and promptly update or correct any outdated content. They should collaborate with experienced legal professionals to review content. Peer review can help identify and correct potential inaccuracies before publication,” Nair said.
Bhogle said, if a matter is pending in court, it’s unethical for lawyers to speak about it to the media.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a legal influencer. But it has to be pursued ethically. A person shouldn’t indulge in activities that contravene any of the rules as stipulated by the BCI, which is the governing body,” Chandrashekhar signed off.