Drafting Legal Correspondence

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Drafting legal correspondence is one of the most common tasks that a paralegal is asked to perform. However, many of us have a difficult time knowing where to even begin when asked to draft a letter to someone. Here are some simple guidelines that you can follow in order to make drafting correspondence easy and efficient.

1. Prepare to write your letter. Before you begin writing, think about your audience, what you need to say, and what tone of voice you should use. If you are responding to a letter, telephone call, or other message, you should have that message or letter in front of you. If you are describing a client’s position or how a certain law applies to a situation, have the client’s statement or the law in front of you.

2. Briefly explain the purpose of the letter. The first paragraph of any legal correspondence should explain the why you are writing to the recipient. For example, if you are responding to a letter or other type of message, you can say, “I am writing in response to your letter dated…” or if you are writing to opposing counsel in order to explain what your client wants from his/her client, you can say, “I am writing in the hopes of settling this matter without a hearing.”  In this paragraph you can also state whether or not you or the attorney has recently spoken with the client, that you have forwarded their most recent correspondence to the client, and/or that the client’s position is the same as the attorneys. For example, “Pursuant to my advice, my client believes he is entitled to…” Just keep it brief and to the point; two sentences is usually quite adequate.

3. Make each point in a separate paragraph. Feel free to number your paragraphs in response to the recipient’s message or simply to make the letter easier to follow. For example, if you are writing to a client to let them know what their spouse is asking for in a divorce, you can number each paragraph and make it correspond to something the client’s spouse wants.

4. Ask the recipient to do something. Generally, legal correspondence is written in the hopes that the recipient will do something; agree to settle the case, comply with a discovery request, pay someone, or take some type of action. The last paragraph of your letter, therefore, should ask the recipient to do whatever it is you want done. For example, if you are writing to an opposing party to ask that they send a settlement agreement for your attorney’s review, you may want to say something like, “Please forward a Settlement Agreement to my office for my review at your earliest convenience.” If your letter is a demand letter, give the recipient a clear deadline for making payment. For example, “Please forward the amount due to my office within 10 says from the date of this letter.”

Tips for Writing Legal Correspondence

  • Write in the active voice. If you use Microsoft Word, you can change your editing and proofreading settings to notify you if you use a passive, instead of an active, voice. Much of the legal documents that are drafted use a passive voice. For example, “The new Bill is being considered” (passive) instead of, “The legislature is considering the new Bill” (active). Active sentences have actors. In this case the legislature. Passive sentences are complete without actors. If the actor is unknown, then it is appropriate to use a passive voice, but if the actor is known, you should name them. Your letter may not sound as “fancy”, but it will make sense to anyone who reads it.
  • Keep it short.  Say what you have to say as clearly and briefly as possible. Do not use compound prepositions or wordy expressions when a one or two words can be used to mean the same thing. For example, instead of saying “because of the fact that…” just say, “because” or “since”.
  • Be consistent. If you start out calling a truck a “vehicle” use the term vehicle through-out the correspondence. You particularly want to be consistent with the words you use to describe people. For example, if you start out saying Mr. Smith, continue saying Mr. Smith, and do not later call Mr. Smith, Joe.

Legal Correspondence Forms and Templates

Having forms and templates for common correspondence is just as important as having forms and templates for pleadings. The types of forms you should maintain depend, of course, on the type(s) of law practiced at your firm. Here are some common correspondence forms and templates that should be useful to paralegals in many different types of practice.

You can also find sample and template letters online at websites such as Biz Tree, Letters, and Find Legal Forms.

Thank you paralegalaliance

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