Effective notice is a legal notice directly sent to the recipient, while constructive notice is made available but not directly received. Written notice is recommended for liability reasons, and a process server can be used for delivery. Constructive notice may be sufficient in some cases, such as government agencies posting procurement notices.
An effective notice is a legal notice that is sent directly to the recipient in some way, to ensure that this person has indeed received the notice. This contrasts with constructive notice, where information is made available so that a recipient can find it, but does not receive it directly. For some types of legal proceedings, effective notice is required to proceed with the case, and a case may be dropped for lack of notice if the recipient has not received the information.
In actual communication, the information is verifiably delivered to the intended recipient. Personal service, where a process server delivers legal documents into someone’s hands, is an example of an effective notice. Posting a notice on someone’s door, by contrast, is constructive notice, because there is a chance the recipient will not get it, for example, if that person uses a different door to enter a facility, or does not live or work there more.
While oral notice, such as when an employee declares an intention to leave a job, can be a form of effective notice, written notice is recommended for liability reasons. An employee could inform a supervisor about plans to leave and agree to follow up with a formal written notice reformatting this information. This can provide protection for both parties in the event of a dispute. Similarly, when a tenant verbally reports a problem with a property to the landlord, the tenant can also send written notice to reduce the risk of confusion or conflict in the future.
When the law requires effective notice to move a case forward, a trial server can be a good option for delivery. Processing servers can research recipients and will make every effort to deliver legal documents within a given time frame. If this is not possible, the server can report to the court and provide information about what was done in an attempt to secure delivery.
Constructive notice may be sufficient in some cases. Government agencies, for example, are required to post procurement notices, but they don’t need to deliver an actual notice to every single contractor qualified to do the job. They can post the notice in a newspaper, or post it on a bulletin board, making the public aware of the contract in a form of constructive notice. Contractors interested in such works would know where to look for notices so that they can know the contracts in competition in a timely manner.
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