Professional background
I am Pradhara Kotambage, an Attorney-at-Law in Sri Lanka. Since entering practice, my work has principally involved civil and commercial disputes, litigation and court practice.
My academic background includes a B.Sc. in Physical Science from the University of Colombo, followed by legal studies at Sri Lanka Law College. I was admitted as an Attorney-at-Law in Sri Lanka in January 2017.
Approach to disputes
Working with disputes in practice has reinforced an important distinction: understanding the law is only one part of understanding a legal conflict. It is also necessary to understand the people involved, the interests beneath their stated positions, the practical consequences of delay and escalation, and the different ways in which a dispute may develop.
Litigation remains an important part of my professional work. At the same time, my professional interests increasingly include negotiation, settlement, mediation and arbitration, particularly where a dispute may be addressed in a way that is more focused, practical or constructive than continued adversarial escalation.
Why this website exists
People rarely experience the law as neatly separated subjects such as civil procedure, labour law or the law of obligations. A legal problem usually begins in a much more ordinary way: a letter arrives, money is not paid, employment ends unexpectedly, a disagreement grows, or a court case has begun and the process is difficult to understand.
The purpose of this website is to make Sri Lankan law easier to understand in those real-life situations. The Legal Guides are therefore organised around practical questions, with an emphasis on explaining what the law generally means, what usually happens in practice, and what distinctions may matter.
Law in practice
Law in Practice | නීතිය ප්රායෝගිකව looks beyond legal rules in isolation and considers how law operates in actual situations, including the practical realities that may not always be obvious from legislation, case law or textbooks alone.
Dispute resolution
The Dispute Resolution section develops a related theme: not every disagreement is best understood only in terms of winning and losing a case. Negotiation, settlement, mediation and arbitration each serve different purposes and have different limitations.
These pages are primarily educational and reflect a developing professional focus on constructive approaches to dispute resolution. The section will continue to grow alongside my professional work, study and training in this field.