Legal Notices Explained
The section has been written and published, albeit in a longer version than the original, and more accurate to the tone of this post and other material on this website: Legal notices are a crucial component of many legal procedures. They serve as a formal method of communicating information and also to ensure that all parties have the requisite due process within all judicial, employment, governmental, and administrative matters. Legal notices are generally required to be in a form established by law . Legal notices are subject to the rules and guidelines of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). These rules and guidelines set forth an understandable method for making information intended for distribution to the general public legally and commonly recognizable by its format devoid of any unreasonable constraint, so as to maximize exposure to the legal notice. In many instances, legal notices are required to be published for a specified duration of time in a newspaper or journal with wide circulation.
Why Notices are Commonly Misaddressed
The reasons for an incorrect address on a legal notice can be many. Sometimes, clerical errors may mean that a legal notice has simply been sent to the previous manager. Other times, it could be as simple as out-of-date information on a leinholder list. Sometimes the court itself may have made a mistake, such as misaddressing a notice of default. Miscommunication, whether between excuse or parties, can often play a big part as well.
What Happens if You Receive a Notice That was Meant for Someone Else
Aside from the inconvenience of dealing with someone else’s legal notice or process, there are no personal legal ramifications. There is a risk in not doing anything with the notice however. For instance, if the process was served on a deadbeat business partner who owes you money, waiting too long to pass the notice along could be considered a "failure to mitigate" and reduce your recovery. If the process requires you to take steps in court, attempting to turn over process to the correct individual could end up being used against you in a court (see my article on hearsay in legal notices). In almost all cases, once you are served with a notice or process, you should assume that you need to respond as though you were the correct recipient.
How to Respond if a Legal Notice is Intended for Someone Else
When a legal notice does arrive at the wrong address, immediate action is an important first step because doing nothing can have serious consequences. You face an obligation to fully inform the sender that you are not the intended recipient so that they can take the necessary steps to address the error. Doing nothing or failing to respond will eventually come back to haunt you.
Notifying the Sender of the Mistake – Your first instinct may be to send them back unopened, but you need to go beyond that. Make sure to send the intended recipient a letter asking them to notify the sender of their mistake or, if needed, forward the document along to them at their correct address . Be sure you state clearly in your letter that you are returning the unopened document so that they can pass it along to the proper person or company.
If you can, it is best to send the letter via a trackable service, so that you can prove that the sender received the letter in the event it becomes necessary. This might be for no other reason than the fact that you do not want to be stuck answering questions about whether or not the intended recipient actually did receive the notice.
Notify the Company or Firm – In addition to notifying the sender, it is best to contact the company or law firm that sent the misaddressed legal notice. Because a company may change law firms and vice versa, you want to make sure that everyone involved in the case knows about the legal notice and where it ended up.
Actions You Can Take if You Are Hit with a Wrong Address Legal Notice
To alleviate any adverse effects of a missed or misdelivered notice, several legal avenues for rectification are available to the recipient, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Notify the entity sending the notice. For any documents required by law to be served by mail, if the notice is misdirected, the recipient can notify the sending party to correct the error. For example, under New York State Criminal Procedure Law § 710.30, notice of intent to introduce eyewitness identification testimony must be provided to defense counsel "by certified mail." When the notice is misdirected to the defendant’s location rather than defense counsel’s address, as required by CPL § 710.30, no in-person identifying examination may take place.
- Notify the sender that the in-person identifying examination has been waived. When the notice is misdirected to the defendant’s location rather than defense counsel’s address, a defendant may choose to waive the right to move to suppress based on this noncompliance by the prosecution in furnishing the required notice.
- Move the court to preclude the introduction of documents. Where notice of trial and jury fees are sent to the wrong address (i.e., to defendant personally rather than to defense counsel), the defendant may seek to preclude the introduction at trial of the underlying documents because he or she never received them in the first place.
- Move to exclude evidence obtained prior to issuance of a search warrant. When a search warrant was not issued until after an illegal search occurred, the defendant’s attorney can move to exclude the evidence obtained as a result of that search. The key issue is the time lapse between the illegal search and a valid search warrant.
How To Prevent Wrong Address Notices From Happening in the First Place
Going forward, there are a number of preventive measures to ensure that legal notices continue to be sent to the right address. For one, verify the details of the address that the legal notices are being sent to. Mistakes can stem from a simple typo, and it’s necessary to ensure that the new information is both accurate and up to date. Further, in some instances, it may be worthwhile to ask for a verification, like a signature, on a document from the relevant entity to ensure that the correct address has been recorded .
Anyone who moves to a new residence or location must update their address with any authorities with whom they hold or maintain relationships. Authorities include but are not limited to banks, credit card companies, courts, professional organizations, creditors, tax agencies, and asset managers. Failure to keep your address up to date may create issues for you and may result in those issues becoming problematic, if not costly.