Virtually every American adult has received a Notice. Some from the IRS, some from a municipal court, some from a local utility company. In fact, Notice constitutes the first of the two essential elements (the other is “opportunity to be heard”) that comprise “procedural due process”—the minimum “due process” that must be provided to every defendant under the 5th or 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
Notice is the first and most important “particle” in the nuclear physics of law. Without Notice, there is virtually no “process”. Procedural due process requires, first, Notice and then, second, Opportunity to be Heard. The “Opportunity to be Heard” is the Hearing before a court. Thus, a defendant who could successfully argue that he hadn’t received sufficient Notice might not have to go to court.
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