What to Bring to Your First Meeting With Advocate B.K. Singh on a Commercial Case

What to bring to a first consultation with Advocate B.K. Singh

The papers you bring should tell a stranger what was agreed and whether each side kept its end, you by supplying and them by paying. For most commercial disputes, that's the contract or purchase orders, the invoices, the other party's full ledger as it stands in your books, proof of delivery or completion, the emails and WhatsApp chats about payment or complaints, and any legal notice that's gone either way. Add a one-page note in your own words. And if you've been sued, the summons and the envelope it came in beat everything else on that list.

Leave the originals at home or in the office for now. Clear scans or phone photos, sent a day or two before, are enough for a first read, and the meeting can then start with questions instead of someone flipping pages. You'll need the originals later, for filing and evidence. Keep them together. Don't write on them.

This guide is about the first meeting on a commercial case in particular, whether that's unpaid invoices, a contract that went wrong, a fight with a distributor or a suit filed against your business. There's a shorter, general list in the guide to 12 documents for a meeting with a commercial court lawyer. This one goes further. It explains how the papers get read, and why a few documents count for far more than the rest.

Why the first bundle of papers matters so much in a commercial case

The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 changed the rules on documents, and it changed them hard. Order XI of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), as amended for commercial suits, makes the plaintiff file along with the plaint every document in its power, possession, control or custody that relates to the case. That includes the ones that hurt it. The defendant has the same duty with its written statement. Leave a document out at that stage and you generally can't rely on it later without the court's leave. To get leave, you'd have to show reasonable cause for not disclosing it the first time.

Both the plaint and the written statement also carry a statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A, verified by someone who knows the facts. If it turns out to be false, the person who signed it is in trouble. So a first meeting isn't only about advice. It's where your disclosure list starts. Whatever you mention there, and whatever you forget, shapes what can be filed. The page on document disclosure and inspection sets the rule out in full.

There's a practical side too. Commercial suits go through fixed stages: admission and denial of documents, a case management hearing under Order XV-A, then evidence. A file that's complete from day one moves through them cleanly. A file that keeps growing draws objections at every hearing, and judges notice. How these stages play out in recovery suits, injunctions and defence work is in the overview of commercial court work.

Write a one-page note before you come

Do it yourself, by hand or on the computer, in ordinary language. Skip the legal words. It saves about twenty minutes in the meeting, and writing it often shows you what's missing.

• Who the parties are. Your business name exactly as registered, and the other side's name as it shows on the GST certificate, the MCA record or the board outside their shop. If a sister concern placed orders or made payments, note that too.
• How it all started. A line or two. When, who introduced you, what the terms were. Say so if the terms were only ever spoken.
• What you supplied or did, and when. The period, how many invoices, and the date of the last delivery or service.
• Where it went wrong. When payments slowed down, what excuse you got, and whether they ever complained about quality, delay or quantity (and if so, when).
• The number. Principal outstanding, any interest agreed in writing, and how you got to the figure. Keep it apart from the interest you'd like to claim.
• What you've done so far. Calls, meetings, notices, any cheque they gave you and what became of it, any lawyer you saw before.
• What you actually want. Maybe full payment. Maybe instalments, or your goods back, or an order stopping them from doing something. Or just an honest read of where you stand.

Documents that prove the deal, the work and the money

Sort what you've got into these four piles before the meeting. A gap in any one of them is the first thing the other side will find.

What does Advocate B.K. Singh read first?

Usually the ledger and the recent letters and emails, before he even opens the contract. A ledger tells you how the relationship really ran. How often were you paid? Were payments matched to particular invoices, or paid on account? Did credit notes go in, and when did the account last move? The correspondence shows what the other side has committed to writing, which is often worth more than anything said on the phone. Say the debtor's accounts head emails that payment is held for budget approval. That's an admission of the debt. An email grumbling about short supply three months before payments stopped is different. It's the first draft of their defence.

Then comes signature. Who signed the purchase order? Who signed the delivery challan at the receiving end, and did that person have authority? Take a Bhiwadi steel trader in a dispute with a Noida fabricator. Challans signed by a guard at the gate tell a court far less than a goods receipt note from the fabricator's stores department.

Only after that do the contract terms come up. Credit period, interest clause, jurisdiction clause, arbitration clause. An arbitration clause, especially, can move the whole fight to a different forum, and it's often tucked into the small print on the back of a purchase order. If you have the reverse side of the order form, bring it.

Which documents count most in which kind of dispute

Bringing WhatsApp chats, emails and ledgers so they hold up later

What you bring has to be provable, not merely readable. With WhatsApp, export the whole chat, media included if possible, from the phone that was part of the conversation, and hang on to that phone. Screenshots do for a quick look across the table. As evidence they're thin, since they show only what whoever took them wanted shown. With email, forward the key messages as attachments or simply leave them in the mailbox. Printouts are fine to discuss, though the court may later want the original with its header details. With Tally or an ERP, print the ledger and don't touch the data. And if the software keeps an edit log, leave it on.

Electronic records are proved under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, with a certificate in the format the Act prescribes. The right person has to sign it, usually whoever was in charge of the device or system. Use the first meeting to work out who that is. It might be you. It might be your accountant, or the IT vendor. The guide on proving emails and WhatsApp chats shows how the certificate works in practice.

One warning comes up in nearly every consultation. Don't delete, crop or rearrange anything so it looks neater before you come. A gap in a chat or an edited ledger entry is easy to explain if you disclose it early. If the other side finds it first, it's very hard.

Authority and ID papers people forget

None of these proves your claim. But without them a plaint can't be signed or filed, so bring copies to the first meeting and nothing will hold up a notice or an urgent application.

• For a company, the certificate of incorporation, a board resolution authorising someone to sign and verify pleadings, and that person's ID
• For an LLP, the LLP agreement, and a resolution or authority letter from the designated partners
• For a partnership firm, the partnership deed and proof it's registered with the Registrar of Firms, because an unregistered firm faces a bar on suing under Section 69 of the Partnership Act, 1932
• For a proprietorship, the proprietor's PAN and ID, and the GST registration showing the trade name
• Your GST registration certificate and, if you're a micro or small enterprise, your Udyam certificate with its date
• The other side's GSTIN, CIN or LLPIN, and its registered office address as the official record shows it
• A power of attorney, if someone other than the owner or director will be dealing with the case

What to find out about the other side before you come

Whatever you can about whether they can pay. Look up their GST registration on the GST portal to see if it's active or cancelled. If it's a company or an LLP, the MCA master data shows its directors or partners, its registered office and whether it's filing returns. Search the eCourts services portal by party name, and you may find others have already sued it. If you know of a factory, a warehouse, a showroom or a big customer of theirs, write it down.

What you find changes the advice twice over. It decides whether suing is worth the cost. It also decides whether to ask the court on day one for security from the defendant, or for attachment of its property before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5 CPC. Courts grant that only on evidence that the defendant is about to dispose of or remove its assets so as to defeat a decree. How high that bar sits is covered on the page about freezing a defendant's assets before judgment. A general fear that the debtor may disappear isn't enough. A WhatsApp message saying the plant is up for sale might be.

Been sued? What to bring, and what to work out first

You'll want the summons and whatever it arrived in (envelope or courier slip), the plaint copy and all the documents that came with it, plus any order sheet or court notice. In that meeting nothing matters more than the date of service, because every deadline is counted from there. For a commercial suit you have 30 days to file the written statement. The court can stretch that to 120 days from service, with costs, but not a day beyond. The Supreme Court made that clear in SCG Contracts v. K.S. Chamankar (2019). Summary suits under Order XXXVII are quicker still. Ten days to enter appearance, and then ten days from service of the summons for judgment to seek leave to defend. Tight.

Bring your own copies of the documents the plaintiff relies on, too. Your version of the ledger, your copies of the emails, your quality complaints. A defence gets built from your records, not from the bits the plaintiff picked. If you think you've got a claim back against the plaintiff, bring those papers as well, because a counter-claim usually goes in with the written statement. The page on defending a commercial suit covers strategy once the papers are in hand.

Getting ready in the week before the meeting

1. Get everything in one place

   Pull out the physical file, download the email threads, export the WhatsApp chat and print the ledger. Don't sort anything yet. Just gather.

2. Split it into the four piles

   Deal, work or supply, money, dispute. Anything that doesn't fit goes in a fifth pile marked 'not sure'. Bring that one too.

3. Put each pile in date order

   Oldest on top. A chronology reads more easily than a stack sorted by importance, and gaps jump out at once.

4. Match the ledger against the invoices

   Check every invoice shows up in the ledger, every payment is matched, and the closing balance is the figure you mean to claim. If there are odd entries, get your accountant to explain them before the meeting. Not during it.

5. Write the one-page note

   Use the points listed above. Where you're not sure of a fact, put a question mark rather than guess.

6. Send scans ahead

   Email or WhatsApp them a day or two before. Big files can go as one PDF per pile, named by date range.

7. List your questions

   Write down what you really want to know. Is the claim in time, which court will hear it, what will it cost and how long will it take? The guide on questions to ask a commercial court lawyer can help you frame them.

How long the first meeting takes, and what comes after

Rough ranges only. How many papers there are, and how urgent things are, set the pace.

Professional fees are talked through at the first meeting and agreed in writing, stage by stage, before any work starts. Court fee and other out-of-pocket costs are separate.

Mistakes people make at the first meeting

Advocate B.K. Singh sees these again and again when he opens a new commercial file. Every one of them costs time later.

• Bringing only invoices. Invoices show what you billed. Without delivery proof and the ledger, they say very little about what's owed.
• Leaning on the accountant's summary. A tidy outstanding statement helps, but it isn't evidence. The court will look at the documents behind each line.
• Holding back the awkward email. If they complained about quality, that email is going to turn up in their written statement. Much better to talk about it now than have it sprung on you.
• Sending someone who wasn't involved. A relative or a junior who never handled the deal can't answer the questions that matter. Whoever dealt with the other side should come, even if the owner comes as well.
• Writing on originals. Highlighter, notes in the margin, a staple through a signature. Each one raises questions when the original is produced in court.
• Forgetting the earlier notice or lawyer. A notice from a previous lawyer, even one nobody followed up, is part of the record. It may contain admissions, or the wrong figure.
• Quoting a blown-up figure. Interest at 24 or 36 percent, added because it sounds about right, hurts your credibility. Bring the number the documents support and let the interest be worked out under the contract, Section 34 CPC or the MSMED Act, 2006.

What you should walk out of the first meeting with

First, a straight answer on limitation. Is your claim or defence in time, and counted from which date? Then a view on the right route, with reasons. It might be a notice, Section 12A mediation, a summary or regular suit, an MSME Council reference, or not suing at all. You should also get a list of what's missing and who's likely to have it, an idea of the court that'll hear the matter and how long each stage roughly takes, and a written fee proposal broken into stages so you can decide in your own time. If you want to read up on the routes afterwards, the commercial court services page goes through each.

You should also know who'll handle the file day to day, and how you'll hear about each hearing. If any of that's unclear when you get up to leave, ask before you go. A short second call beats a month of wondering.

Can you meet online, and which office should you pick?

Yes, you can meet online. Plenty of first meetings happen on video, especially when the client is outside Delhi or the scans have already come in. The guide on consulting online for a commercial dispute explains how it works, and when meeting in person is still better, for instance when original documents need a proper look.

For an in-person meeting, pick whichever office is easier to reach. Dwarka suits clients in West and South West Delhi and Gurugram. Vaishali suits East Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida. Which office you visit has nothing to do with which court hears your case. The practical details are in the guide on booking a consultation in Dwarka or Vaishali.

Before you send anything

Put the scans in date order. Name the files so they'd make sense to someone who's never seen them. Put your one-page note on top. That alone puts your file ahead of most that arrive.

If you'd like your contract, ledger and correspondence read before the first meeting, share them with Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page, and the meeting can start with your questions.