What’s the difference between a legal and a business letter? It may not be what you think! Many people think a legal letter simply makes a demand or threat of legal action on another person or company. A “legal letter” that jumps directly from alleged facts to a threat of legal action but lacks a solid basis for the demand isn't likely to get results. Here are some hypothetical letter excerpts intended to serve as legal letters but which fall short of that objective.
EXAMPLE #1 “I delivered the aforementioned goods with an invoice to your place of business on April 17, 2020, for which you agreed to pay me within thirty (30) days. It is now June and you haven’t paid or responded to my phone calls or emails. I demand that you pay within the next three (3) days.” This statement suggests but doesn’t detail what wrong the other party committed – it needs to state a basis for a legal claim against the merchant such as breach of a written contract, bad faith and unfair dealing and/or unjust enrichment, for example. More factual detail is also needed to support a legal claim.
EXAMPLE #2 “Mr. Jones, you, the Vice President and President of Acme Consulting interviewed me separately. Each of you told me I have the right qualifications for the position of Marketing Director and there were two other finalists. I just received a rejection letter from your company stating that although my qualifications are impressive, you decided to offer the job to one of the other finalists. I found information about the new hire on LinkedIn. She is white and I am black, so it’s obvious you have illegally discriminated against me.” Unlike the contracts hypothetical, the facts alone as presented don’t suggest a strong basis for a legal claim. Our writer might not have been hired for any number of appropriate reasons other than race, such as education, job-specific qualifications or leadership potential. Facts that may support a discrimination claim, such as written or verbal remarks by the company that demonstrate bias against the applicant because of her race are missing and the writer doesn’t state what she wants the employer to do to right the asserted wrong. Reference to federal civil rights/employment and any applicable state law would be helpful to bolster the claim.
EXAMPLE #3 “Dear Neighbor: Please stop mowing your lawn at 8 o’clock every Sunday morning. You should know better than to disturb me and our neighbors with that noisy lawn mower when people want to sleep in. It is a real nuisance! Stop NOW or else I’m taking you to court!” In common law, nuisance means an unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of property. Our writer in this example just happened to use nuisance as the correct term, although I think she does so in a general sense, rather than from an understanding of correct legal terminology. Similarly, the exclamatory statement “’Stop NOW or else I’m taking you to court!’” suggests that the writer will seek an injunction to halt the offending conduct, which would be the likely remedy. Obviously this last sentence could have been phrased differently.
An appropriate legal letter would delve into the particulars of nuisance. Proving nuisance is based on factual detail. The offending activity must be substantial and unreasonable. An activity is substantial if it is annoying to a reasonable person. Courts may consider several factors to determine whether an activity is unreasonable, including the setting in which it occurred and the character of the area. Most people would agree that lawn mowing in a suburban neighborhood is a customary, normal and acceptable activity. A court could review whether or not the mowing violates a local ordinance for operating noise-emitting equipment at that time of day on a weekend, the actual noise level emitted, how close it is to neighbors and duration of the noise. More facts should be included, such as the following: “In particular, when you use your noisy gas-powered mower to mow the side yard only ten feet from my bedroom window, the noise always wakes me up, even if the windows are closed. I looked up the decibel level and found it is about equal to the ambient noise level of heavy highway traffic. Any reasonable person would agree this level of noise on a Sunday morning, even for a short period in a suburban neighborhood is both inappropriate and unreasonable.”
To sum up, while there is no guarantee that even carefully written correspondence alone will resolve a matter, at the very least it puts the other party on notice. Regardless of the situation, every letter should contain the following:
FACTS – Memories can be faulty. Save all paperwork – contracts, invoices, receipts, warranties, etc. Be honest – emphasize, but don’t cherry pick only the facts in your favor.
LAW – What statute, regulation or common law principle did the other party violate? Show how the law supports your claim.
CAUSE OF ACTION – A cause of action entitles a complainant to some type of relief under the law such as an equitable remedy or legal remedy. Mere unfair treatment or unethical conduct, unless it amounts to prohibited conduct under the law won’t get you relief.
RELIEF – Relief is the action you would want a court to impose on the other party if the matter went into litigation. Relief could be money or an order to a defendant to stop offending conduct, or a non-monetary directive.