What Questions Should You Ask a Commercial Court Lawyer Before Hiring?

If you only ask a handful of questions, ask these

Pick questions that make the lawyer talk about your papers instead of their own record. Which court hears this, and why that one? On what date does limitation run out? Do we have to try pre-institution mediation first, or does the urgent relief exception really apply to us? Could this go as a summary suit? Which document in my file is the weakest? If we win, can they actually pay? And who drafts, who appears, and how does the fee break up across stages? Someone who has read your documents can answer every one of these in a sentence or two, with a reason attached. Someone who hasn't will drift into generalities. You'll hear the difference.

Vetting the lawyer as a professional is a different job (enrolment, conflicts, how often they appear in your court). We've covered that in 10 checks before you hire a commercial court lawyer in Delhi. This piece is about the conversation itself. What to ask across the table, what a careful answer sounds like, and how to line up two or three sets of answers so you choose on substance and not on charm.

Your questions shape the advice you get

We've watched a lot of first meetings go the same way. The client tells the story. The lawyer listens for ten minutes, says it looks like a good case, mentions the fee and suggests a legal notice. Everyone's happy. Nobody has opened the ledger. Six months on, the trouble shows up: half the claim was time-barred, or the invoice had an arbitration clause on the back, or the defendant company turned out to own nothing worth attaching.

A commercial suit doesn't forgive that kind of start. The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 runs business disputes of Rs 3 lakh and above under a tighter version of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC). You have to disclose your documents with the plaint under the amended Order XI. The plaint carries a statement of truth under Order VI Rule 15A, and you sign it, not the lawyer. A defendant gets 120 days at most for a written statement. Slip in the first month and you'll be fixing it for years.

Asking good questions costs you nothing. It takes an hour. And it pins the lawyer to specific positions that you can then test against a second opinion. The method works for hiring commercial lawyers anywhere in India. Only the names of the courts change.

Questions about your own case

• Is my dispute a commercial dispute, and is it worth Rs 3 lakh or more? Section 2(1)(c) of the Act lists the kinds of transaction that qualify, and Section 12 says how you work out the value. If the answer's no, you're in an ordinary civil court with different rules.
• Which court will hear it, and why? A proper answer will touch on value, where the contract was made or carried out or where the defendant does business, and any jurisdiction clause hiding in the agreement or the invoice.
• How much limitation time do I have left? Under the Limitation Act, 1963 most money claims have to be filed within three years. Ask the lawyer to tell you the exact date time started running, and whether a written acknowledgment or a part payment has reset it since.
• Do we need Section 12A mediation before filing? It's compulsory unless the suit really does need urgent interim relief. Ask why they think you do or don't fall within that exception. The reason matters more than the answer.
• Is there an arbitration clause, or an MSME option? A line in the purchase order, or the small print on your invoice, can push the whole dispute into arbitration. If you're a registered micro or small supplier, the MSME Facilitation Council may be open to you.
• Could this be a summary suit? Where the claim stands on a written contract, invoices the buyer accepted in writing, a cheque or a promissory note, Order XXXVII CPC can be quicker.
• What's the weakest point in my file? There always is one. If the lawyer can't name it, they haven't read the file properly.
• What's the other side going to say? It might be quality complaints, or delay, or set-off. They may claim a different running balance, or say the person who signed had no authority. Ask how each one would be answered.

How you can tell a careful answer from a careless one

Try it on limitation. A careless answer is 'Three years, you're fine.' A careful one goes something like this: 'Your last invoice fell due on 15 March 2024. But the customer paid Rs 2 lakh on account in November 2024, and their accounts head emailed a balance confirmation in February 2025. Under Sections 18 and 19 of the Limitation Act, either of those can restart time if the conditions are met, so for that balance we'll work to February 2028 as the outer date. The older invoices, though, I'll need to check one by one.' That second answer might still need checking. But you can see the lawyer has looked at the dates and the documents.

Jurisdiction works the same way. 'We'll file in Delhi' isn't an answer. This is: 'The purchase orders came from the buyer's Noida office and the goods were delivered there. But the agreement gives exclusive jurisdiction to the courts at New Delhi, and part of the cause of action arose in Delhi, so that clause should hold. The suit goes to the commercial court in the district the agreement points to, as long as the value stays inside the district court's limit.' If you want to know which dates a lawyer ought to be checking, our guide on the time limit to recover unpaid dues goes through them.

Listen, too, for how the lawyer handles what they don't know. 'I'll need to see the ledger first.' 'That depends on whether the person who sent the email could acknowledge the debt.' Those are good signs. A lawyer who promises you a result, or a date for judgment, is breaking Bar Council of India rules. More to the point, they're telling you something nobody can know.

Questions about strategy: which route, and why?

Ask the lawyer to walk through every route you have, with one point for and one against each. If you're a supplier who hasn't been paid, that list usually looks like this. A negotiated settlement. Section 12A mediation and then a regular commercial suit. A summary suit under Order XXXVII. A reference to the MSME Facilitation Council. Arbitration, if there's a clause. And occasionally insolvency proceedings against a company that simply can't pay. You'll rarely use more than one or two of these. But hearing the full list tells you whether the lawyer is fitting the route to your case, or squeezing your case into the route they always use.

Next, ask what the first ninety days look like on the route they're recommending. In most cases a summary suit still goes through Section 12A mediation. After that the defendant has 10 days to enter appearance, and then 10 days from the summons for judgment to ask for leave to defend. In a regular suit, if the defence is hopeless, an early application for summary judgment under Order XIIIA may be possible. Where the contract has an arbitration clause, the talk shifts to interim measures or appointing an arbitrator, which our network site on arbitration petitions in Delhi covers.

Last one. Ask what they'd do if it were their money and their costs. You'll often get a more honest answer than the formal advice. Sometimes it's 'take 80 percent and move on'. Fair enough.

Questions about whether you'll ever collect

A decree against a company with an empty bank account and rented premises is just paper. Before you pay a rupee of court fee, ask what the lawyer knows, or can find out, about the defendant's assets. The registered office. The bank account your payments went into. Any property in the company's name or the proprietor's. Money owed to it by big customers. Vehicles. Whether its company filings show charges in favour of banks. Our guide on checking whether your debtor has assets before you sue lists the public sources.

Then ask if protective orders are realistic. Order XXXVIII Rule 5 CPC lets the court attach property before judgment when the defendant is trying to sell off or move assets to defeat a decree. Order XXXIX covers injunctions. Both are serious remedies. They need evidence of a real risk, not just your worry, and a lawyer who throws them in as routine is overselling. A good answer tells you what proof you'd need and whether you've got it.

And ask how execution would go if you won. In Rahul S. Shah v. Jinendra Kumar Gandhi (2021) the Supreme Court said execution petitions should ordinarily be decided within six months. That helps. It doesn't find the assets for you. You want the lawyer who's already thinking about the end of the case at the very start.

Questions about who'll actually do the work

Keep this bit short. Who drafts the plaint, or the written statement? Who reads the final draft before it goes in? Who turns up on routine dates, and who comes on the dates that count: the injunction hearing, leave to defend, framing of issues, cross-examination of your witness, final arguments? If a senior counsel might be briefed in the Delhi High Court, when does that call get made, and how is that fee handled?

Also ask who keeps the diary of hard deadlines. A commercial suit has only a few dangerous dates, but they don't bend. The 30 to 120 days for a written statement. The 10-day windows in a summary suit. The 60 days for an appeal under Section 13 of the Act. Somebody in the chamber should own those dates. You should know who.

Time and costs at each stage, and what to ask

Questions about fees and the engagement letter

Get the fee in writing, stage by stage, before you sign the vakalatnama. What you need to know is what each stage covers, what it leaves out, and what happens if the case ends early. Does the drafting fee include the replication and the affidavit on disclosure of documents? Are interim applications (an injunction, say, or an attachment application) billed separately? Is the appeal a fresh engagement? And if the matter settles in mediation in month two, is the rest of the fee dropped, adjusted, or still payable?

Ask about everything outside the fee too. Court fee. Mediation fee. Process fee. Typing and copying. Local Commissioner charges, travel to courts outside Delhi, and whatever a senior counsel charges. If you're a business entity, GST on an advocate's services is usually paid by you under the reverse charge mechanism, so check with your accountant how it'll be booked. Our guide on how commercial court lawyers charge in Delhi explains per-appearance, stage-wise and retainer arrangements.

One answer should be a flat no. If a lawyer offers to take a share of whatever's recovered, leave. Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules bars an advocate from fixing a fee that depends on the result or from sharing in the proceeds of litigation. You don't want to be relying on an arrangement the professional rules forbid on the day the case gets hard.

Questions about updates, documents and what you have to do

Ask how you'll hear about each date and each order. Some chambers send a short WhatsApp after every hearing with what happened and the next date. Others send a monthly note. Either is fine if it's agreed up front. Ask whether you'll get a copy of the order sheet after each hearing, and who in your business should get it. An order marked 'last opportunity' that reaches only a proprietor who's travelling in Dubai can sink a case.

Then ask what's expected of you. In a commercial suit the client carries real duties. You have to disclose every document in your power and possession under Order XI, including the ones that hurt. You sign a statement of truth, and a false one has consequences. And you'll need a witness who actually knows the deal. Ask how the WhatsApp chats and emails will be proved. Electronic records now need a certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. Our guide on proving emails and WhatsApp chats in a commercial court tells you what to save now.

Ask where your originals will be kept. Usually they stay with you until inspection or evidence, and the chamber works off scans. That's safer for everyone.

If you're the one being sued, ask these first

A defendant doesn't have time to shop around, so the questions need to be sharper. Begin with dates. When exactly were you served, and with what? If it's a summons in a regular commercial suit, the written statement is due in 30 days, and 120 days from service is the absolute limit. If it's a summons in a summary suit, you get 10 days to enter appearance and then 10 more days after the summons for judgment to apply for leave to defend. Ask the lawyer to write those dates on the front page of your file while you watch.

Then ask about the plaintiff's soft spots. Did they actually do Section 12A mediation? Is the suit in time? Is it in the right court? Have they padded the claim with interest the contract doesn't support? Ask whether you've got a counterclaim and what court fee it would cost. Ask what you have to disclose with your written statement, because the same Order XI duties apply to you. We've covered the defence side in more depth on our page on the 120-day written statement deadline.

Don't let the search for a perfect lawyer eat the deadline. Two clear written answers? Pick one and let them start.

Questions a careful lawyer will put to you

• When did they last pay you anything, and was it by cheque, RTGS or cash?
• Who signed the purchase order or the work order, and what was their post at the time?
• Is there an arbitration or jurisdiction clause anywhere, including the terms printed on the back of the invoice?
• Have they ever complained in writing about quality, delay or short supply? When?
• Did they ever confirm the balance, by email, a ledger confirmation or a reply to an audit letter?
• Are you registered under Udyam, and since when?
• Do their GST filings show your invoices, meaning they've taken input tax credit on them?
• Is anything else going on between you, another case, a cheque bounce complaint, an old dispute?

What to bring so the questions get real answers

Where will it be filed, and why does the lawyer need to know before you hire?

The court decides who can realistically handle your case, so raise it early. In Delhi, commercial suits from Rs 3 lakh up to Rs 2 crore go before a District Judge (Commercial Court) at the district complexes in Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Karkardooma, Saket, Rohini and Dwarka. Anything above Rs 2 crore goes to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court, on its original side. In July 2026 the Delhi High Court's Full Court recommended raising the district court limit to Rs 10 crore. That needs an amendment to the Delhi High Court Act, so check where the limit stands before you file.

In Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, the suit goes to whichever court is designated as the Commercial Court for the district. That includes Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar (the court sits at Surajpur), Gurugram and Faridabad. Appeals go to the Allahabad High Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court respectively. Territory follows Section 20 CPC: where the defendant lives or works for gain, or where all or part of the cause of action arose. A valid exclusive jurisdiction clause can narrow things down, but only among courts that already have jurisdiction.

Ask the lawyer to name the actual court and say why. If two lawyers look at the same papers and name two different courts, that tells you a lot. Our page on which court will hear your commercial case sets out the rules in more detail.

How Advocate B.K. Singh's team reads your papers at a first meeting

Before anyone reads a page, Advocate B.K. Singh's team runs a conflict check on the other party, its directors or partners, and any group company in the papers. If we can't act, we shouldn't have seen anything confidential. Then we read backwards, starting with the latest document. The other side's last email, notice or reply usually gives away what their real defence will be, and the older invoices make more sense read against it. We jot down your own questions at the start and answer them at the end, in a short written note. It covers the likely court, the outer limitation date for each group of invoices, whether Section 12A mediation applies, the route we'd suggest, which papers are still missing, and the costs that sit outside the fee. Sometimes the honest answer is that a suit isn't worth filing. Then the note says so.

Running the first meeting so you can compare lawyers

Your questions only help if every lawyer hears them the same way. A plain method lets you compare two or three lawyers fairly, even if you've never hired one before.

1. Send scans two days before

   Email the agreement, invoices, ledger and the main correspondence ahead of time, with a one-page note of dates. If the lawyer has read the papers already, you'll spend the hour on answers instead of on sorting files.

2. Put your questions on one sheet

   Take the case, strategy and fee questions from this page. Leave room under each for the answer. Ask every lawyer the same ones, in the same order.

3. Ask why, every time

   When you hear 'district court' or 'summary suit', ask why. Write the reason down. Reasons are what you'll be comparing later, not conclusions.

4. Ask what's missing

   Close by asking which documents they still need and what they'd do in the first 30 days. A clear list is a good sign. 'We'll see' isn't.

5. Get the fee and plan in writing

   Ask for a short email with the stages, the fee for each, what's left out, and the likely costs outside the fee. Don't sign a vakalatnama until it's in your inbox.

6. Compare within a week

   Put the answers side by side. Go with the lawyer who was specific, who named the risks, and whose written plan matches what they told you in the room.

If you're a defendant and the clock's running, squeeze all this into two days. The questions don't change. You just get less time to compare.

How the questions shift for a startup, an MSME supplier, a big company or a defendant

A startup suing a large client should ask about the relationship. Can you press the claim without losing the account? Is there a way to mediate that keeps the door open? Ask too how the case will show up in fundraising, because investors will ask about pending litigation in due diligence.

A registered micro or small supplier should get the lawyer to compare the MSME Facilitation Council with a commercial suit. That includes interest at three times the RBI bank rate under Sections 15 to 17 of the MSMED Act, 2006, and what the MSMED (Amendment) Act, 2026 changes. Parts of that amendment were reportedly brought into force from 15 October 2026. We hadn't found the new Sections 18, 18A and 19 notified as of late October 2026, though, so ask the lawyer to check the current position.

A big company with its own legal team will care more about reporting. A fixed update format. A budget forecast every quarter. Who signs the statement of truth for the company. A defendant, as we said, asks about dates first and everything else after. Whoever you are, if the matter may land in the Delhi district courts or the High Court, our page on a commercial court lawyer in Delhi explains how we handle those courts.

Book a consultation

This week, get your papers into one folder, write that one-page note of dates, and print the questions on this page. Mark the date the money fell due. Mark the last date they paid, or confirmed the balance in writing. If you've been served, note the date of service and keep the envelope.

Then meet the lawyers you're considering and ask each of them the same questions. Hire the one whose answers were specific, came in writing, and told you what could go wrong. You'll find an outline of our work across the commercial courts on the commercial court lawyer in Delhi page and the commercial court services page.

If you'd like your papers read and your questions answered in writing before you decide, you can book a meeting with Advocate B.K. Singh's team through our contact page.