Did you ever receive a legal notice?
Were you shocked on receiving it, as you didn’t anticipate it?
Well, there is nothing to worry about at this point in time.
Legal proceedings have not yet started. The sender just wants to caution you beforehand before instituting a legal suit. You may get a legal notice for a property dispute, a matrimonial claim, a claim for recovery of money, or you possibly breached a contract, etc.
What Is A Legal Notice?
Let us first deal with the very basic question. The term ‘legal notice’ has not been defined under any legislation. In simple terms, it is a notice given by an individual, company or a legal representative to the opposite party. They demand the satisfaction of their specific claims. It is an act of informing the other party that they need to fulfill their lawful obligations. Otherwise, you will be sued in court.
You can just think of it as a warning before the actual trouble starts in the court. You may even contact the sender if you feel there is some misunderstanding or a wrong claim has been made.
There are various provisions of law which specifically deal with legal notice. Let us talk about them further.
Provisions Regarding Legal Notice
As we know, there is no single comprehensive legislation dealing with legal notices. Specific sections of various legislations deal with it. Some of them are:
Section 80, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 –
Supposedly, your father is a government official working for the State Government. So, to maintain the integrity of the state, a two-month prior notice must be served on the government official before institution of suit by the plaintiff. In that notice, the name and address of the plaintiff, the cause of action and the relief sought must be mentioned in a clear and lucid manner.
Section 356, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
Defamation is an act of making false or untrue statements about someone and this act harms his reputation in society. For example, publishing in a newspaper that A caused murder of B while the case is still under trial. A Legal notice can be sent to withdraw incorrect information or otherwise face legal proceedings.
Section 73, Indian Contracts Act, 1872 –
Now, A and B entered into a contract for repairing an old house, but A did not fulfill the job properly as per the contract. So, B is legally entitled to receive compensation. He can do so by sending legal notice to A for breach of contract. If the issue remains unresolved, B may file a suit.
Section 138, Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881
You all must have heard about dishonour of cheques. It means that the bank has refused to pay the amount to the payee due to insufficient funds or any other matter. Then the payee has the right to issue a legal notice to the drawer (the person who issued the cheque) within 30 days of dishonour of cheque. After that, he can go for criminal proceedings if the drawer does not respond within 15 days of receiving the notice.
Section 106, Transfer of Property Act, 1882
It is necessary to give prior notice for the termination of the lease by the landlord or the tenant. In case of residential property, 15 days prior notice to be given and in case of commercial properties, six months prior notice to be given. Moreover, almost all state-specific rent control acts have provisions for serving a legal notice on the tenant before eviction.
Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Under this act, though sending a legal notice is not mandatory, but is procedurally required at almost all places. You need to send a legal notice to the opposite party for issues pertaining to – Restitution of conjugal rights (Section 9), judicial separation (Section 10), Divorce (Section 13) and maintenance( Section 24 and Section 25). Similar provisions have been made under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
Section 2A, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
What if you were working under an employer and he terminated you illegally or did not pay you wages on time, or violated the employment agreement? In these cases, you may send a legal notice to the employer for compliance with the terms and conditions as decided.
Section 7, Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972
X and Y shared an employer-employee relationship. But X (employer) refused to pay the gratuity amount to Y (employee). So, Y may send a legal notice to claim the gratuity amount.
Section 245, Companies Act, 2013
You hold shares of a particular company but find out that the directors are working in a manner which wrongly affects everyone including you. So, you, along with other shareholders and depositors can send a legal notice to the company to stop their ultra vires acts. If the company does not agree, all of you together can institute a class action suit.
From all these provisions, we come to know that a legal notice is sent before the institution of a suit to solve the disputes in a friendly manner. Sometimes it is a mandatory requirement or is generally followed as a procedure. But how do you need to react after receiving a legal notice? I am also wondering about the same. Let’s clear this confusion too.
Steps To Follow After Receiving a Legal Notice
Rather than being stressed, you need to act smartly on receiving a legal notice. I will guide you through the basic steps which must be taken care of. They are as follows:
- First of all, when a legal notice gets delivered at your address, accept the delivery. Refusing to accept it will not do any good. It will just reduce your chances of solving the dispute easily and escalate the matter to legal proceedings.
- Then you need to engage a lawyer who dives deep into the facts of the matter, cause of dispute, the remedies available and the relief sought by the sender.
- The lawyer will draft a reply to the legal notice and incorporate your side of the story into it. You don’t need to accept any false claims being made. You must tell your counterclaims.
- The lawyer needs to check the laws applicable and all the alternative methods of dispute resolution. This will save you time as well as costs.
- After a reply is drafted, send it via registered post to keep track of it.
- At the end, both parties may decide to resolve their dispute on agreed terms and conditions. Otherwise, the matter will go to the court in a routine manner.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you must be very clear about your main goal i.e. to avoid the escalation of matter before the court. You will have to act proactively and engage a lawyer to deal with it. In my suggestion, you must always reply to a legal notice to maintain your own peace and sanity. Otherwise, you will have to go a long way which is quite tiresome.
