penal notice

Penal notices are affixed to the front of court orders, appear after the title of the proceedings and prominently. If a court order does not contain a penal notice, it may be fatal to enforcement for civil contempt of court by committal or sequestration as well as for applications to enforce mandatory injunctions. The absence in some cases may be excused in the case of prohibitive injunctions.

Penal Notice

A standard form of Penal Notice for prohibitive injunctions reads as follows:

“PENAL NOTICE
If you, [First respondent] and [Second Respondent (if any)], disobey this order you may respectively be held to be in contempt of court and may be fined or have your respective assets seized, and further you may be imprisoned, fined or have your assets seized. Any other person who knows of this order and does anything which helps or permits [First Respondent] [or the Second Respondent] to breach the terms of this order, may also be held to be in contempt of court and maybe imprisoned, fined or have their respective assets seized.”

Mandatory Injunctions

In the case of a mandatory injunction against an individual, the following form of words would be substituted:

“If you, the within named [First Respondent] neglect to obey this order by the time stated, you may be held to be in contempt of court and may be fined or have your respective assets seized, and further you may be imprisoned, fined or have your assets seized.”

Companies

Where the order is intended to be enforced against a director of a company,

“If [Company Limited] neglect to obey this order by the time stated, you [Director], you may be held to be in contempt of court and may be fined or have your respective assets seized, and further you may be imprisoned, fined or have your assets seized.”

Court orders are ideally personally served upon those against whom the order is sought to be enforced, unless the Court has dispensed with personal service or made orders for substituted service (such as by telephone, email, facsimile and/or post). Nevertheless, a contemnor must have notice of the terms of the order, and knew of the facts which made his conduct a breach. It is not necessary to show that the contemnor knew what he was doing was a breach of the order.

Contempt of Court

Disobedience of court orders is punishable by imposition of a custodial sentence, fine and/or sequestration of assets of those in breach. Failures by those named in the order or those giving undertakings to a court usually a civil contempt of court. Assisting, aiding and abetting breaches of court orders or undertakings by persons who are not named in the order is criminal contempt of court, failures to comply with court orders obstructs or tends to obstruct the proper administration of justice.