Legal Notice

Question: We get countless queries — sir, how should a legal notice be sent?

Solution: First, fix this in your mind: a legal notice concerns future action — that if the legal rights owed to the sender, the legal rights that person is entitled to and which you are bound to fulfil, to whom this legal notice is being sent — if that person does not give those legal rights within the specified time, then it is a notice that if you do not give me those rights, I will initiate legal proceedings against you. Now, a legal notice can be sent by the person himself. It can also be sent through counsel, through a lawyer. If you send it through a lawyer, the difficulties you might have in drafting it, the legal points he needs to build into future litigation, the lawyer will draft that legal notice keeping those legal points in mind. If you send it yourself, whatever issues you have at a surface level, you write about those issues and then send it. Legal notices are of two kinds.

One kind of legal notice is a legal requirement — before starting any litigation, it is very necessary for you to send a legal notice — for example, under the Consumer Protection Act, when you have a problem, within thirty days of that you must send a legal notice, and within the specified time after sending it, within thirty days, you must file the case. Where the law requires it, within the specified time, under the relevant statutory notification, you must send a legal notice. My guidance to you here would be that you send it only through a lawyer. A legal notice that is not a legal requirement, but which you send to avoid future litigation — because maybe matters will get resolved just through the legal notice — you can send that one yourself.

Now, what are the requirements of a legal notice?
1. First in a legal notice will be the name of the person it is being sent to.
2. Second will be on whose behalf it is being sent.
3. Then there will be a heading — the heading being that it's a 'Notice Qanooni' if you're writing it in Urdu, or 'Legal Notice' if writing in English. If it's a legal requirement, you write it accordingly, stating, under Section such-and-such, legal notice, under such-and-such Act.

Now, in it, the first paragraph — if you are sending the legal notice yourself, you write that I am sending this personally; if it's being sent through a lawyer, the lawyer will write that you have given me the authority, that I am sending this legal notice on behalf of A.

In the second paragraph, you write all those events, all those circumstances that compelled you to send this legal notice — that this was my legal right, and you are refusing to give me this legal right — if it's about recovering an amount, you gave the amount, you gave a cheque, the cheque has been dishonoured, now I am sending you this legal notice that you must pay this amount within fifteen days, and you must respond within seven days; if you do not respond within seven days, and do not make payment within fifteen days, then I will be finally compelled — or the lawyer will say he has clear instructions — to initiate legal action against you, both criminal and civil. Whatever the matter may be, after stating the facts, then the instruction, that sir, within so many days, either make this payment or fulfil this legal right, and after that you write, sir, if you do not, I will take this and this legal action against you.

Below this will be your signature, or if there's a lawyer, the lawyer's signature. After this comes a very important point — a note — you must add below: a copy of this legal notice is preserved with me for further legal action, [stating] that a copy of this legal notice I will send if I go into litigation against you, that I had also sent you this legal notice that you should fulfil [your obligation], or the lawyer will say it is kept in my office.

Then, once this legal notice is ready, you must put a date on it — the date on which you prepared and are sending this legal notice — and then you must definitely write its number — that this is the number of this legal notice, according to your diary, it can be anything — it's not that big a deal, you can write legal notice reference number 1, 2, 3, whatever your records are — if it's a lawyer, he will write it according to his own diary; if you're doing it yourself, you can write your own number too — it's not mandatory to write it, and if you don't write it, that's not a problem either. Then you send this legal notice via registered post with acknowledgment — there's plain registered post, where you go to the post office, get an envelope, put the legal notice in it, and send it — you won't know whether the person it was sent to received it, whether Zaid received it or Bakar received it. If you attach an acknowledgment-due slip with it, that acknowledgment-due slip gets attached to that post — you'll fill it out, write your address on one side, and on the other side write the recipient's address. Once it's sent, and after it's delivered, whoever receives that legal notice, his name will be written on it — that this person has received the legal notice. This completes your legal notice. Let me repeat what its components are:
1. Date at the top.
2. Name of who it's being sent to.
3. Name of who it's being sent on behalf of.
4. Heading — that this notice is legal.
If it's being sent through a lawyer, the lawyer will write that his client has instructed and authorized him; or you yourself will write that I am sending this myself.
5. You must write all the facts and circumstances due to which you are sending this legal notice.
6. You must demand your legal right from him — that within fifteen days I must be given this legal right, according to law I am entitled to receive this right.
7. If I do not receive a response within seven days, I will consider it a refusal on your part, and then I will initiate legal action against you — a lawyer will say, I have clear instructions to initiate legal action against you.

After this come the signatures, and after the signatures, the note. In the note, it will be formally written that, sir, a copy of this, a copy of this legal notice, is with me or in my office, for use in any further litigation.