What Should I Do If My Business Receives a Demand Letter From an Attorney?
Most businesses at some point receive some form of demand letter from another party or lawyer. A client or customer may send a letter to your business from their attorney because they are dissatisfied or because they feel they are entitled to something. Employees may send a letter due to their dissatisfaction with your company. Vendors may send an attorney letter because they dispute some term related to payment or performance in an ongoing contract. These examples just name a few of the scenarios in which your business may receive a demand letter.
So the question is how should you respond and how much time will it take to solve the problem. Unfortunately, when it comes to working with government courts, multiple attorneys, and other legal issues; things typically move slowly.
Demand letters from an attorney
Oftentimes in a demand letter or an attorney letter, the party sending the letter states a demand and a timeline as to when they want a response. Most of this time, this required response date is not statutory or fixed by a government authority. Note that this isn’t always true and there may be a hard deadline to which your response must abide. Your attorney can look at the issues to determine the relevance of the deadline. It is advised that you in fact contact your attorney at the earliest possible time when you receive a demand letter.
Get legal insight before you respond
The reason it is important to contact your attorney when you receive a demand letter from an attorney is to get their legal insight as to the importance of your response. Even if you want to respond yourself instead of paying your attorney to respond, your attorney can give you a few good pointers as to what responses can help you and what responses may hurt you. Attorneys are trained to be good at spotting potential issues and strategizing a response.
Response letter from an attorney
So you might respond to a letter from an attorney. When you hear back, or how you hear back will be a big question. It is not uncommon for parties to send letters back and forth for months or even years. If you have hired a good attorney, you can get out a timely response. Unfortunately, you can’t control how fast the other party responds. This time period of sending letters back and forth can be stressful. It can be especially frustrating if you as a business owner or executive haven’t been informed of the nature of the legal issues or how a situation may go. Know that most disputes end up being solved during this stage where letters are being sent back in forth. By having you and your attorney make a strong priority to effectively communicate, your odds of finding a reasonable settlement increase greatly.
It is understandable that a dispute involving attorneys can increase anxiety. Clients are likely experiencing some uncertainty and don’t fully know how to move forward. What attorneys can do is clearly layout the options and the possible ramifications to those options. It is our job as attorneys to help calm our clients’ anxiety by helping reduce the level of speculation our clients contemplate.
All of our attorneys have experience running businesses and understand business. This unique trait can help bridge the gap between the needs of business and the needs of the legal system.
Fargo Patent & Business Law, PLLC – in**@fa************.com – 701-566-7571
