Putting the 'ease' into legalese

Rajesh Kumar from Bangalore had a problem. His air ticket booking from an online company had been declined, but he was charged for the tickets anyway. Shubhangi Pathak from Oxford had a different issue to deal with. A laptop she purchased in India crashed. Her international warranty got her a new hard drive, but the original 500GB disk was replaced with 250GB.

When months of frustrating conversations with indifferent customer care executives yielded no results, Kumar and Pathak took their litany of woes to a Delhi-based website called Akosha (.com). It worked.

Set up in June 2010 by Ankur Singla, who quit his job with an international corporate law firm to become an entrepreneur, Akosha (it means 'to unravel') was born after Singla recognised a potential market. He wanted to help the beleaguered common man deal with day-to-day legal problems. Companies offering similar services had long existed in the West, but the concept was new to India.

Today, Akosha offers free legal information about everyday issues, but earns much of its revenue from handling consumer complaints. Since it began operations, the eight-member team claims to have helped resolve complaints against a number of major brands.

Interestingly, a disclaimer at the site says that Akosha cannot provide legal advice about possible rights or defences, or approach courts of law on a consumer's behalf. When asked about this, Singla concurs: "We are not a law firm. We try and resolve problems at the first stage itself, by reaching out to the company. If they aren't resolved, we help customers approach a forum to get their rights enforced. A consumer forum is meant to be accessible by the common man without the need of a lawyer ufffd it should be as simple as applying for a driving license."

He describes his team as "in-house and external domain experts who understand consumer issues in different sectors and are able to assist consumers over a telephone helpline." When asked about how comfortable people are with taking their problems to a website, as opposed to a traditional lawyer's office, Singhal reiterates that Akosha is no replacement for a lawyer. "When customers want one, we connect them to the Akosha Trusted Lawyers network (any lawyer can sign up online by answering a few questions). In our experience, customers just want their complaints resolved in most cases. They don't want to get involved in any legal process."

Considering the relatively poor luck most of us have when dealing with Indian companies, I ask Singhal about his company's success rate. "It varies from sector to sector," he admits. "With consumer electronics and online commerce, we have seen success rates as high as 90%; with cargo/logistics, our rate can fall to 15-20%."

Finally, given that much of his work revolves around consumer rights, I mention our laws. Is the Indian consumer protected at all? In his reply, he points out that the country has seen a lot of progress in terms of consumer protection over the past three decades, but still has a long way to go. "With so many other pressing issues, consumers do not get due attention from influential NGOs or civil society organisations. We need better regulation and enforcement, especially in areas like telecom, banking and capital markets."

Until that happens, then, Akosha may well be our only hope.