This brief natural law resource is part of a remedy series compiled, written and submitted by faculty members of NEU’s School of Natural Law.
Gratitude to C. Broussard for sharing this photo of Dartington Hall from her private collection.
Administrative Procedure for Civil Matters
Handling debt, court or taxes all involves understanding due process and administrative procedure.
Once you know how to properly implement administrative procedure you will have a solid grip on how to handle just about every issue that comes your way, whether it be debt, court, IRS, state tax, etc. Knowing procedure is the critical foundation of knowing how to handle anything that comes your way with skill, honor, and responsibility.
What Is Administrative Procedure Today?
For the perfect example of effective administrative procedure there is no better agency at doing administrative procedure anywhere in the world than the IRS. Despite the fact that no legislation exists anywhere that requires a US Citizen to pay income tax, the IRS has an exemplary record for successfully enforcing claims for income tax. It does this using administrative procedure …
Lets look at a classic IRS situation:
The IRS thinks you owe them some money.
The IRS sends you a nice letter stating that they believe you owe them $1,125.00. As an unlearned US Citizen slave you panic! What do I do! Yikes…I know I don’t owe them that! So, most folks either go silent in fear, or argue the amount. Either way the IRS has you at this point. If you argue the amount then you create a controversy, and they will be happy to settle with you (they are a debt collector after all). If you go silent, well here’s where administrative procedure kicks in.
It is a fundamental maxim of law that silence is acquiescence (agreement).
So the IRS assumes that, since there was no response, you must agree to the amount! But, maybe you didn’t get the letter. Maybe you moved? So, what do they do?
They give you due process, another opportunity to come into honor with them. So, they send you another letter. This letter is usually a slightly higher amount with the added interest accrued over the period of their wait time. This second letter usually says something like, “Hey, we sent you a letter. You didn’t respond so we’re sending another letter. Oh, and you owe us more with interest.”
You panic again! Thinking, “How can they keep adding more? Oh no! What do I do?”
So, you go silent again.
Another week or so goes by and another letter shows up! This time the letter says something like, “Hey, we sent you two letters. You did not respond. Now you owe us even more money! Oh, and we’re going to take it from your bank account!”
So, what has happened?
An administrative procedure has happened! The process by someone obtaining an agreement with you through your acceptance, by silence, of their offer.
Now you know how it works, so you may avoid the trap; and even use the same process they used to obtain remedy. In other words, you respond to their letter, with your letter. And, if they do not dispute your terms and conditions, they are in agreement!
We wish you great success in your endeavors for all civil matter administrative procedures.
