All legal action can only be taken once notice has been served upon the entity or individual you wish to take to court. It is only this process that legalises bringing a matter to court. The intimation sent is known as a legal notice.
A legal notice is, therefore, a formal communication to a person or an entity, informing the other party of your intention to undertake legal proceedings against them.
This notice, when sent, conveys your intention before the legal proceedings and thus, makes the party aware of your grievance. Many times, a legal notice served will bring the other party on heels, and the problem can get resolved out of court too, with fruitful discussions on both sides.
And, if the other party is still not heeding to the grievance, one can always start the court proceedings after a particular interval, as stated by the law.
Although a legal notice can serve as a purpose of negotiations between the parties and save time, effort and money that are usually spent in court cases.
Table of Contents
Essential Information
A legal notice is filed as per Section 80 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and is only filed in civil cases. A legal notice is an intimation and thus carries the following information:
- Precise statement and facts relating to the grievance for which the action is to be taken.
- Alternatives/relief sought by the grieving party.
- How are the relief/problem in hand be solved, a summary of facts and the way it can be solved.
A complete brief of the problems that the aggrieved party is facing, combined with what can be done to resolve the issue need to be clearly mentioned. The last past of the Legal notice should contain a detailed account of how relief can be obtained/problem solved if mutually agreed upon the grievance.
A perfectly crafted legal notice, can act as a mediator between the two parties and help solve the issue out of the court if both of them are willing to compromise on the issue.
A legal notice format must contain the following points:
- Name and required information
- Description
- Place of residence of the notice sender
- Aspects of the effect
- The monetary relief claimed by the sender of the notice
- The gist of the legal basis for the relief claimed
Filing a Legal Notice
A legal notice, although a simple document, requires precision and accuracy and use of definite language to ensure the message sent across is correct. A legal expert or an agent can help in putting forth the legal notice as per law and wording it as required for the particular issue.
Procedure:
- The first step is to draft a legal notice, with the issue, the relief sought and a definite time frame (say, 30 to 60 days) to solve the issue, is to be addressed to the other party and sent through a registered AD post.
- After sending the notice, save the copy of the receipt sent. This may come in handy in case of filing for the court case.
- Wait for a given period, before the filing of the court case.
- Now, the person or entity on whom the legal notice is addressed will have the above mentioned days to revert back with the notice or agree for out of the court settlement.
Although the other party may or may not reply to the legal notice, it is essential for a person on whom the legal notice is addressed to send a reply within the stipulated time. If not replied to notice, one may be at a disadvantage of not following the law, and thus, may give the other party undue advantage while appearing in the court.
A legal notice can be sent personally too. One can draft a legal notice, and authorize it before sending it to the other party. However, since wording, a legal notice is extremely important if the case reaches the court, and citing of law under which you have raised the claim is essential, having an expert in law to make the copies of the legal notice will work to your advantage.
The same applies to replying to a legal notice too, since here too, one may not know the appropriate law to be used, to revert to the claims demanded by the other party.
The legal notice format PDF is drafted in the below section where you can find the legal notice format for recovery of money.
Legal notice format for recovery of money:
Ref. No……………. Dated ____, __________
REGD.A.D.
SUB.: LEGAL NOTICE
To,
_____________
Dear Sir/Madam,
Pursuant to the instructions from and on behalf of my client ___________________, through its _____________, I do hereby serve you with the following Legal Notice: –
1- That my client is a ___________ firm/individual under the name and style of M/s ______________________.
2- That my client is engaged in the business of __________ of the ___ etc.
3- That against your valid and confirmed order my client did your job work from time to time on credit basis as you have running credit account in the account books of my client operated in due course of business.
4- That my client-raised bills of each and every work performed for payment, although you have acknowledged the receipt of such bills raised by my client.
5- That inspite of acknowledging the liability of payment of principal balance of Rs. _________/- you have been miserably failed to make payment of the said amount due to my client from you deliberately with an intent, hence you are liable to pay the said principal balance amount of Rs. __________/- along with interest @ __% p.a. from the date of due till actual realization of the said sum as is generally and customarily prevailing in the trade usages, which comes to Rs. __________/-
6- That thus you are liable to pay the total amount of Rs. ________/- to my above-named client and my above-named client is entitled to recover the same from you.
7- That my client requested you several times through telephonic message and by sending personal messenger to your office for release of the said outstanding payment, but you have always been dilly delaying the same on one pretext or the other and so far have not paid even a single paisa out of the said outstanding undisputed amount.
I, therefore, through this Notice finally call upon you to pay to my client Rs. __________/-. along with future interest @ __ % p.a. from the date of notice till actual realization of the said amount, together with notice fee of Rs. ____/- to my client either in cash or by demand draft or Cheque whichever mode suits you better, within clear 30 days from the date of receipt of this notice, failing which my client has given me clear instructions to file civil as well as criminal lawsuit for recovery and other Miscellaneous proceedings against you in the competent court of law and in that event you shall be fully responsible for the same.
A copy of this Notice has been preserved in my office for record and future course of action.
(____________)
ADVOCATE