constructive notice
Constructive notice is the legal fiction that someone actually recieved notice (being informed of a case that could affect their interst - see: Notice) whether or not they truely did recieve this. If certain procedures have been followed, the law will consider a person to legally have recieved notice, even if in fact they did not. Compare: Actual Notice.
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
The fiction that someone got notice even though actual notice was not personally delivered to that person. The law may provide that a public notice put on the courthouse bulletin board is a substitute for actual notice. Or the court may authorize service by publication when a spouse has left the state to avoid service in a divorce action. The legal advertisement of the summons in an approved newspaper is treated as constructive notice, just as if the summons and petition had been served personally.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:13 pm
