Demand Letter.

Claimant (plaintiff)

At some point, an aggrieved party may realize that there is a dispute and a major disagreement that can not be resolved without lawyer assistance and court intervention.  Potential client may choose to retain a lawyer to draft and to send a formal demand letter as an attempt to resolve the matter outside of courts before putting resources into  unnecessary litigation. It is a wise decision to review evidence with and seek advice from a licensed  litigation lawyer.  It is typical for a litigation lawyer to interview a potential client to apply the substantive law to the client's situation.  In addition to determining the strength and weaknesses of your case, during consultation, a lawyer can assist you with legal advice on the proper court jurisdiction to start your action, to check if the limitation periods to start the action had not expired and to do due diligence searches on the defendant's assets to see if the defendant has money to pay court judgment.

A typical demand letter summarizes the facts behind the dispute, requires to pay specific amount of damages to prevent the correspondent from initiating an action and sets specific deadline to deposit the money to the lawyer's account or directly to the client to avoid litigation before courts.

When client retains a lawyer to draft a demand letter, he must ensure that the lawyer has experience advancing type of legal action the client commences.  Some areas of law, such as insurance law, construction, corporate and tax litigation are highly technical and specific knowledge of the areas of law is required.

Before commencing litigation, client may want to know that litigation process is slow and technical.  The client need to budget the litigation and discuss with lawyer typical cost of litigating similar methods, as well as alternative ways to resolve the disputes, such as arbitration or reducing amount of damages to jurisdiction of Small Claims Court.

Defendant

If person is threatened with litigation, it is wise idea to consult a lawyer immediately.  An experienced lawyer can determine client's chances of success in defending legal action or to evade action by way of settlement or drafting appropriate response to demand letter.  Collect the documents that lawyer can use as evidence to build aggressive defence of legal action.  Always try to resolve the litigation dispute without courts, litigation before courts is an expensive investment in terms of money, stress and time and may significantly interfere with your life and efficient functioning of your business.

Lawyer's Practice.