Now let it never be said that the funny side of lawyers is limited to lawyer jokes and Boston Legal. The Bombay Bar Association for the Original Side (Bombay Bar), established in 1862, have a great sense of humour as is evidenced by their website.  

To a new visitor, their humour comes as a breath of fresh air. It has become rare to see lawyers let their hair down ever since they stopped wearing wigs to court.

When we stumbled upon the site, we were under the impression that it was a big joke. We actually checked on the domain hosting site (whois.com) to ascertain the owner of the site – the Bombay Bar Association it turns out, does own the site.

The Bombay Bar’s website is full of witty remarks and snide humour regarding almost every aspect of the Bar. Delightfully placed sarcasm and wry humour makes visiting the site a giggle.

Their members’ directory page plainly mocks the unaware user. Their 'about us' column pokes fun at a senior member who promised to write the association’s history. To quote the website, “Mr. F.E. Devitre, Senior Advocate, has long promised to write the history of this Association. We live in hope.”

Just in case you thought the site lacked inherent humour, there is even a section on humour  titled, 'In Joco Veritas', filled with jokes and humorous rants.

Despite all the entertainment, it is a pity that the website contains very little useful information. Most links are outdated and essential information such as a members list and organisational structure is missing. To sacrifice necessity for the sake of humour does not agree with the vast majority of lawyers who use the internet as a source of information rather than a place to have a few laughs. An update on the related links page would also be more than welcome to make the website useful.

However, the most interesting part of the Bombay Bar website is the section titled 'legal stuff' which sums up the site’s attitude perfectly and takes potshots at tedious and often humdrum presentation of legal information on other websites.

While we applaud the approach of having added colour to a predominantly black and white world, it would be interesting to know the raison d’etre and the mastermind behind those laughs.  In the meantime, we hope that the Bombay Bar website while continuing to maintain its uniqueness, also spruces up to focus on law!