Legal Notice
A legal notice is a legal action in the form of formal communication sent to a person or entity that informs him or her of the same in order to take legal action against him or her. It is a preliminary notice of details, allowing the person/entity to know that he/she is a grievance and the cause of legal action is taken in respect of it. If not dealt with caution; it might become a factor that the court may take if the case proceeds to litigation. Therefore, the aggrieved person has an option to file a legal notice against the person/entity.
Advantages of Legal notice
- It serves as upper hand: If any legal notice is sent by a person, the sender is always considered to be at upper hand.
- Helps in reducing risk: It protects the legal rights of both the parties and a well formulated notice can go a long way in mitigating the legal risks.
- Reducing the ambiguity: The laws and the rules applicable on the person are more specifically considered, thus helps in reducing the ambiguity involved in the minds of people relating to their legal rights and responsibilities.
Procedure
- A well competent attorney from our team will contact you to explain you about the whole process. He will also understand the need of filing a legal notice in your case.
- Once the purposes of the same are clear, the attorney shall draft a sample legal notice accordingly.
- The drafted legal notice shall be sent to you for your analysis.
- On your approval, it shall be served to the other party.
- The whole process takes between 3-4 working days.
The Implications of Legal Notice in India
The legal notice document in India is a type of a caution to the person it is sent to. This makes the person aware of what he is not aware about. It mentions the mistakes or sins that the recipient has committed. Also, it states the penalty that the recipient might have to bear if the person who sends it resorts to litigation. If a person ever receives a legal notice, before you think about any action, it is recommended to take advice from a civil cases processing attorney.
Cost of sending a Legal Notice
The whole process that includes drafting and sending a legal notice document to a person through or from a veteran's office can cost around INR 2500/- and can approximately go up to INR 7500/-. However, the cost will also vary upon on the case, for instance, if a legal notice is sent in a case such as a simple cheque bounce, the services will be cheap as INR 500/-. But it will be costlier if there is a complicated case.
Note: A tip to cut some of the cost would be to prepare a draft on your own and then go to the attorney just to send the legal notice through him. In this case, the cost of drafting will be saved it will be cut down from INR 7500/- to as low as INR 4000/-.
In case of a complicated issue, it is recommended that drafting of a legal notice or reverting to it should be done by an expert attorney because a legal notice can be referred in case of litigation later.
Is a legal notice compulsory to send?
Whether to send a legal notice or not, it always depends upon the issue. A legal notice is not always needed to be sent. But in some cases, it is recommended that a legal notice is sent before presenting the case before the court. For instance, Section S-80 CPC (Civil Procedure Code) that makes it compulsory to send a legal notice before prosecuting against the recipient party. Similarly, Section S-138 of Negotiation Instrument act makes it compulsory to issue a legal notice for bounced cheque before approaching the court. Also, filing a legal notice can be quite fatal in certain cases. Therefore it is recommended that sending a legal notice should be avoided altogether in cases where sending a legal notice is not mandatory. As it is fatal to submit a legal notice in some cases, one must be very careful to issue it by claiming all the reliefs that you are claiming the legal notice against.
Response to Legal Notice Sent By Lawyer
You need to follow these simple steps in order to reply:
- Read and understand the legal notice that you received very carefully. If it asks to take some action specified in the case, for instance, a bounced cheque, you can simply pay the person who sent you the legal notice and clearing the matter there itself.
- Consult and email the obtained legal notice to a qualified specialist attorney, the lawyer will draft a response for you and deliver it on your behalf to the sender.
- Based on your response to the sender, the sending party may choose either to bring the matter to the court of law or to agree for a settlement outside the court, but in both cases, you need to make sure that the attorney you took services from is well aware of the actions which he advises you to take.