What Does a Commercial Court Lawyer Do? A Plain Guide for Business Owners

In one paragraph: what we actually do

A commercial court lawyer stays with a business dispute from the first time the papers land on the desk until the money is actually paid. Along the way there's a legal notice, mediation under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, a plaint or a written statement drafted under the tighter rules for commercial suits, applications for urgent orders when they're needed, evidence, arguments and, if the other side still won't pay, execution of the decree. Defending a suit is the same work turned around. The deadlines are just shorter.

It's duller than the courtroom scenes on television. Most of it happens at a desk. We read ledgers, match invoices against delivery challans, work out the claim figure and the interest, and make sure nothing is filed a day late. Commercial courts decide most suits on paper. So the desk work wins more cases than speeches do.

Why these courts need a lawyer who does this every week

The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 created special courts, and a modified version of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), for commercial disputes with a specified value of Rs 3 lakh or more. Section 2(1)(c) defines a commercial dispute widely. It takes in ordinary trade, supply and service contracts, construction, distribution, franchising, partnership and shareholder agreements, intellectual property, insurance and leases of property used only for business, and a few more. Not sure if your matter fits? Our guide on what counts as a commercial dispute walks through the definition, and the one on commercial cases a business can bring in Delhi gives real-life types of claim.

The modified procedure changes how a lawyer spends the day. Every document goes in with the plaint. Pleadings carry a statement of truth. The written statement has a 120-day outer limit, and it's a hard one. A case management hearing sets the timetable. Costs follow the result far more strictly than in an ordinary civil suit. If you do commercial work every week, these rules become habit. If you do it once in a while, you have to stop and think each time, and that's where mistakes creep in. We've set out the practical difference in the guide on when you need a commercial court lawyer and not a general civil lawyer.

Before anything goes wrong: the contract and the paper trail

The cheapest litigation is the kind you shape before there's any dispute. When we review a contract, we read the clauses that end up deciding cases years later. Which courts have jurisdiction. Whether there's an arbitration clause, and where its seat is. The interest rate on late payment. How acceptance of goods or services gets recorded. What happens on termination. The guide on contract clauses that decide court cases later takes them one at a time.

Advice on the paper trail is just as useful, and people skip it far more often. Plenty of Delhi businesses run on WhatsApp orders and phone calls. In an hour, we can tell your accounts team what to keep: signed challans, acceptance emails, regular balance confirmations. If your customer signs a balance confirmation once a year, that's a written acknowledgment under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, and the three-year limitation clock starts again from it. It's a small habit. We've seen it rescue claims that would otherwise have been time-barred.

Once the dispute starts: the assessment, the notice and Section 12A mediation

Real work starts with an assessment. We read the documents and answer a few plain questions. How much is genuinely due, and with what interest? Is the claim still within limitation? Which court has jurisdiction? Does an arbitration clause or the MSME route apply? What will the other side say in defence? And does the debtor own anything worth chasing? A proper assessment ends with advice. Sometimes that advice is to negotiate, not sue.

Then the legal notice. The law doesn't make it compulsory before a commercial suit. We'd still send one. It gives the other side one last chance to pay, and whatever they write back shows you their defence early. We keep it tight, with the invoices, the amount and the interest claimed, and we leave out any admission or exaggeration that could be read out against you in court later.

Next comes Section 12A. Unless your suit really needs urgent interim relief, you have to apply first for pre-institution mediation through the legal services authority. We file that application, sit through the sessions, and either negotiate a settlement or collect the failure or non-starter report that has to go in with the plaint. Mediation can run up to three months, and two more if both sides agree. That period is excluded from limitation. Our page on mandatory mediation before a commercial suit has the details.

The plaint: the work most clients never see

The plaint is the document that starts the suit, and in a commercial case it carries far more weight than in an ordinary one. It has to set out the facts and the cause of action, explain why this court has territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction, show how the specified value is worked out under Section 12 of the Act, and state the interest claimed and the court fee paid. A statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A verifies it, signed by someone who actually knows the facts. And Order XI, as amended, says it must come with every document in your power or possession relating to the suit, whether that document helps you or hurts you, along with an affidavit of documents.

That last rule is why drafting is so heavy on documents. If you leave something out now, you may not get it in later without the court's leave and a good reason. So we go through your files for the helpful invoices, yes, but also for the awkward email where your sales manager agreed to a discount. The other side has that email too. And the judge will want to know why you hid it.

Advocate B.K. Singh doesn't start drafting a plaint until he's made a list of dates and events and tied every single date on it to a document in the file. A date with no document behind it either gets supported before filing or comes out of the plaint. It sounds fussy. It's also what stops most of the contradictions a defendant would otherwise pick apart in cross-examination.

When it can't wait: injunctions, attachment and receivers

Some disputes won't wait for a decree. Your terminated distributor is still selling stock under your brand. A buyer is loading machinery onto trucks outside its Bawana factory. A former partner is calling your clients from your own list. In cases like these, our job is to ask for interim relief: a temporary injunction under Order XXXIX of the CPC, attachment before judgment under Order XXXVIII Rule 5, or a court receiver under Order XL. And if the need for urgent relief is genuine, the suit can be filed without first finishing Section 12A mediation.

Courts don't hand these orders out easily. You have to show a prima facie case (one that looks sound on the papers), real and immediate harm, and a balance of convenience on your side. We have to prove that with documents. Adjectives don't count. Take attachment before judgment. The court wants material suggesting the defendant is about to sell or shift property to defeat the decree, and a general worry that it might not pay won't do. Our page on urgent injunctions for a business explains when these orders are realistic and when they aren't.

If you're the one sued: the first 30 days after summons

A business that's been sued needs its lawyer moving at once. The written statement is due within 30 days of service of summons. The court can give more time with costs, but never past 120 days, and after that you lose the right to file it at all. Summary suits under Order XXXVII are even tighter. The defendant has ten days to enter appearance, and then ten days from the summons for judgment to apply for leave to defend. Miss that window and a decree can follow straight away.

In those first days we read the plaint and documents and look for objections: no Section 12A mediation, the wrong court, a claim outside limitation, an arbitration clause. We prepare a statement admitting or denying each of the plaintiff's documents, gather your own documents for disclosure, and decide if you have a counter-claim. That last one can't wait. A counter-claim, say for damages over defective goods, goes in with the written statement, so it has to be thought through immediately. The page on defending a commercial suit covers how we approach the defence.

What happens on hearing dates

Most dates are short. On a routine date we check whether pleadings are complete, ask for or oppose an adjournment, and take the next date. Clients sometimes think these dates don't matter. They do. A commercial court can put costs on a party for delay, and it can close your right to take a step you didn't take in time.

The first big hearing after pleadings is the case management hearing under Order XV-A. The judge frames the issues (the exact questions the court will decide), fixes dates for evidence by affidavit and for cross-examination, and sets a deadline for written and oral arguments. We go in with draft issues and a timetable that can actually be kept. Where the other side's case has no real prospect of success, we also consider asking for summary judgment under Order XIII-A. There's more on this in the guide on the case management hearing.

Evidence is mostly on paper. Your witnesses' statements go in as affidavits, and the hearings are used for cross-examination, often before a local commissioner the court appoints to record it. We prepare your witnesses, cross-examine theirs, and file written arguments before the oral arguments begin. Under the amended CPC, the judgment is to be pronounced within 90 days of arguments closing.

From the first meeting to the decree, step by step

This is the usual route when you're the business with a money claim. If it's urgent, mediation is skipped and the interim application comes first.

1. Read the papers and settle the figure

   We reconcile invoices, payments and your ledger to get the principal that's really due. Then we work out interest at the contract rate, or a rate the court is likely to accept. Limitation and jurisdiction get checked in the same sitting.

2. Send the legal notice

   The notice goes out with a short deadline to pay. If they reply, we read it for the defence it gives away. Sometimes it contains admissions that help you.

3. Apply for Section 12A mediation

   We apply to the legal services authority and attend the sessions. It ends one of two ways: a recorded settlement, or a non-starter or failure report you'll need for filing.

4. Draft and verify the plaint

   We prepare the plaint, statement of truth, list of documents and affidavit of documents, and you check them before you sign. Court fee is worked out on the claim, pre-suit interest included.

5. File it and clear scrutiny

   The suit is e-filed. The filing section usually raises objections, and we cure them. Then it's listed before the commercial court for summons.

6. Pleadings, then admission and denial

   The written statement comes in, followed by a replication if one's needed. Each side admits or denies the other's documents on affidavit. Anything admitted doesn't need formal proof later.

7. Case management, evidence, arguments

   Issues are framed and a timetable is fixed. Evidence affidavits go in, witnesses are cross-examined, and written submissions and oral arguments follow.

8. Judgment, decree, and what's next

   If you win, the decree is drawn up with interest and costs. If payment doesn't follow, we advise on execution. If it goes the other way, we talk about an appeal.

How long each stage takes, and what it costs apart from our fee

After the decree: getting paid, or appealing

A decree is an order to pay. It isn't money in the bank. If the other side won't pay on its own, we file an execution petition under Order XXI of the CPC and ask the court to attach bank accounts, receivables, movable or immovable property, or to make the judgment debtor disclose its assets on affidavit. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021), the Supreme Court directed that execution proceedings should ordinarily be decided within six months. Our page on executing a decree goes through the tools the court can use.

When execution files come to Advocate B.K. Singh, the problem is usually the same. Nobody looked for the debtor's assets until the decree arrived, and by then the accounts were empty. His advice is simple. Write down the debtor's bank details from old cheques, RTGS entries and GST invoices on day one, and keep an eye out for any property or business transfer while the suit is running. That's often what separates a decree on paper from money you actually collect.

If the judgment goes against you, you can appeal under Section 13 of the Act within 60 days. In Delhi the appeal goes to the Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court, and the same applies in UP and Haryana. After that, a special leave petition to the Supreme Court under Article 136 can ordinarily be filed within 90 days. Section 8 of the Act bars revision petitions against interlocutory orders. So most complaints about orders passed during the trial have to wait for the appeal against the final decree.

When the other side wants to settle

Lots of commercial suits settle, very often once the written statement is in and both sides can see where they stand. Our job then is to make sure the settlement can be enforced. That means a written compromise recorded before the court under Order XXIII Rule 3. It needs clear instalment dates, a default clause letting you execute for the whole balance if one instalment is missed, and some security, such as post-dated cheques or a director's personal undertaking.

Loose settlements lose strong claims. We see it often. The deal lives in a chain of emails, the other side pays two instalments and stops, and you're back in court arguing about whether you withdrew the suit. If the matter settles through court-annexed mediation, you may be able to get a refund of court fee in some cases under the Court Fees Act, so do ask. The page on settling a commercial suit halfway through covers how it works.

Things your lawyer won't do

• Promise you'll win. No honest advocate can tell you that you'll win, or when you'll be paid, and the Bar Council rules don't allow such promises to be used to bring in work.
• Take a cut of the recovery. We can't charge a fee that depends on the result, or a percentage of what's recovered. The Bar Council of India Rules forbid it.
• Work as your recovery agent. Ringing the debtor's family again and again, turning up at their house, making threats: none of that is legal work, and it can land your business with complaints of its own.
• Make or change evidence. We won't backdate an agreement, invent an acknowledgment or edit a ledger. If you ask us to, that's the end of the engagement.
• Speak to the judge privately. Anything we say to the court is said in front of the other side, or on the record.
• Repeat what you told us in confidence. What you say to your advocate for legal advice is protected under Section 132 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.

What only you can do

• Read the whole plaint or written statement before you sign the statement of truth. You're verifying it on oath.
• Give us every relevant document at the start, the ones that hurt as well as the ones that help. Late documents can be kept out.
• Tell us straight away if the other side pays something, calls, messages or makes an offer after the case is filed.
• Pick a witness who actually handled the deal, and make sure that person is free on the cross-examination dates.
• Keep the originals somewhere safe, and bring them out when the court or the other side asks to inspect them.
• Answer our requests by the date we give you. In a commercial suit, a week's delay can cost you a whole step.
• Let us know if your phone number, email or authorised signatory changes, so the court record stays correct.

Who else works on your file: juniors, clerks and counsel

A commercial court lawyer hardly ever works alone. Juniors cover routine dates, draft applications and keep the file up to date. The court clerk, the munshi, does the filing, collects certified copies, watches the cause lists and deals with the filing section. On bigger matters a senior counsel may be briefed to argue the injunction or the final hearing, while the advocate on record does the groundwork.

Outside Delhi, your lawyer may appear in person or work with associate counsel in that district. If the case reaches the Supreme Court, only an Advocate-on-Record can file the petition, so your lawyer works with one for filing and argues or briefs as needed. In every one of these setups, ask who's responsible for deadlines. You want one named person. 'The office' isn't an answer.

How the work changes by business, and across Delhi, UP and Haryana

With a goods supplier, most of our effort goes into proving delivery and quantity: challans, e-way bills, goods receipt notes, GST returns. A service business is different. Think of a software vendor or an advertising agency in Okhla. There the fight is nearly always about acceptance and scope, so we need the statement of work, change requests and sign-off emails. If you're a registered micro or small enterprise with a Udyam certificate, we'll also weigh the MSME Facilitation Council and the higher statutory interest under the MSMED Act, 2006. A startup chasing a big client usually wants a firm notice and a well-run mediation before it commits to a full suit. A large company with dozens of matters wants pleadings that match across all of them, and regular reports.

Geography changes the court. The core work stays the same. In Delhi, suits up to Rs 2 crore go to the district commercial courts, and bigger ones to the Delhi High Court. Do check the current limit, because there's a proposal pending to raise the district courts' ceiling. In Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), Gurugram and Faridabad, the court designated as the district's Commercial Court hears commercial suits of Rs 3 lakh and above, and appeals go to the Allahabad High Court or the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Court fee schedules aren't the same in Delhi, UP and Haryana, so we compute it under the law of the state where the suit is filed. The overview of our commercial court services lists the matters we handle in these courts.

What to do this week

If you're owed money, gather the contract or purchase orders, the invoices, proof of delivery, the ledger and payment records, and every message where the other side talked about paying. Work out when the oldest unpaid invoice fell due, and when you last got a payment or a written acknowledgment. If you've been sued, note the date you were served. Treat the next 30 days as working time. They aren't waiting time.

Then bring those papers to a lawyer. If you haven't decided whom to see, the guide on ten checks before you hire a commercial court lawyer in Delhi should help, and our page on commercial court work shows the kind of matters the firm takes on.

If you'd like someone to read your papers and explain the route, or you just want to hear when commercial court law changes, you can reach Advocate B.K. Singh through the contact page.