Nine questions we wish we had asked.

This page is not about VakilSearch specifically. It is about the shape of the problem: paying a large sum upfront, to an online legal services company, for a court-dependent outcome, on the strength of a phone call. If you are about to do that with anyone, take ten minutes on these first.

Ask these, in writing, before the transfer

1. "Is this fee final, and what is explicitly excluded?"

   Not "is it all-inclusive" — they will say yes. Ask them to list the exclusions. Court fees, stamp duty, government charges, notarisation, travel, and out-of-pocket disbursements are the usual ones, and in a succession matter the court fee can exceed the professional fee.

   Our ₹65,000 was described as fixed and all-inclusive. Court fees estimated above ₹75,000 were disclosed in a document issued the same day we paid.

2. "Which legal entity am I paying, and will the invoice come from that entity?"

   If you are asked to transfer money to a company whose name is not the brand you contacted, stop. Any explanation for it — a GST saving, a processing issue, an accounts team preference — is a reason to pay through the official gateway instead, not a reason to pay elsewhere.

   Your remedy later depends on being able to show who you contracted with. Do not make that complicated on day one.

3. "Why does this price expire in an hour?"

   A deadline on a discount is a sales technique, not a fact about legal work. The correct response to "this rate holds for one hour" is to let it expire. A firm that wants your matter will still want it tomorrow.

4. "What are the milestones and dates, and what happens if you miss them?"

   Ask for a written schedule with named deliverables, and ask what the remedy is if a date slips. "It depends on the court" is legitimate for the hearing date. It is not legitimate for drafting a Power of Attorney or filing a petition.

5. "Who is the named advocate on my file, and what happens if they leave?"

   Get the name. Then ask what the handover process is. Files that get passed between staff without handover are how ten months disappear — you spend the time re-explaining your own matter to each new person.

6. "What is your refund policy, in writing, if nothing is delivered?"

   Ask specifically: if in six months no document has been filed, what do I get back? Get the answer on email. A company that cannot state a refund position before taking your money will not develop one afterwards.

7. "Can I pay in stages tied to deliverables?"

   Milestone payments are normal professional practice. Full payment upfront for a multi-month court process puts all of the leverage on one side from the moment the transfer clears. If staged payment is refused outright, factor that into the price.

8. "I have a hard deadline on this date — can you commit to it in writing?"

   If any part of your matter is time-critical — a property sale, a visa, a relative's travel dates — put the date in an email and ask them to confirm, in reply, that they can meet it. A verbal "yes, no problem" is worth nothing three months later.

9. "What is the escalation path above my account manager?"

   Get a name, a role and an email address for the person above your point of contact, before you need them. When every person you speak to redirects you to someone else, having asked this question at the start is the difference between escalating and starting over.

What we would do differently, in order

1. Move everything to email. Summarise every call in a short email to them the same day: "Confirming our call — you said X by Y date." An unanswered summary email is itself evidence.
2. Put your deadline in writing, once, early. Name the date and what depends on it. We flagged the Kerala sale verbally from day one; a single email would have made that unarguable.
3. Set your own review date. Decide in advance: if there is no filed document by a specific date, you request cancellation. Then hold to it. Our ten months were ten one-month extensions of patience, none of which we chose deliberately.
4. Send a formal written refund demand, not a request. State the amount, the date paid, what was not delivered, and a deadline for response. This is also the document a consumer forum will look for first.
5. Keep the exports, not the screenshots. Export full WhatsApp chats and download email threads as files. Screenshots are easy to dismiss as selective; a full export is not.