What to Look for When Empanelling a SARFAESI Panel Advocate

Banks, NBFCs, and small finance banks regularly empanel advocates for SARFAESI and recovery work, but the criteria used often favour broad litigation experience over the specific discipline this practice area demands. A few targeted questions during empanelment predict recovery performance far better than years of general practice alone.

Depth, Not Breadth, of Experience

An advocate handling SARFAESI matters as one small part of a general civil practice is not the same as one whose caseload is built around recovery work specifically. Ask how much of the advocate's active practice is genuinely recovery-focused, not just whether they have handled such matters before.

Familiarity With the Institution's Own Workflow

Recovery counsel who already understand how a particular bank's documentation, sanction letters, and internal approval process work reduce the time spent explaining institutional context on every file, and that translates directly into faster filings.

Track Record on Procedural Discipline

Ask specifically about the advocate's approach to pre-issuance review of demand notices, and how challenges to their enforcement actions have historically fared before the DRT. An advocate who can speak concretely to this is a stronger empanelment candidate than one who can only cite case volume.

Capacity for Portfolio-Level Work

Where an institution expects to route a volume of accounts to panel counsel, the advocate's capacity to handle structured, portfolio-level reporting, not just individual matters in isolation, becomes a practical empanelment criterion in its own right.

Responsiveness on Time-Bound Filings

SARFAESI and DRT work is governed by strict statutory timelines. An advocate's demonstrated responsiveness on urgent, time-bound filings is often a better predictor of recovery outcomes than general reputation.

The Empanelment Conversation Worth Having

The right empanelment conversation focuses less on credentials in the abstract and more on how the advocate actually works: how notices are reviewed, how challenges are anticipated, and how a growing caseload is managed without losing procedural discipline on any individual file.