How to write a lawyer's letter correctly

Lawyer's letter writing is the basic content of lawyer's business and one of the basic skills of document writing. Lawyers' letters are common in reminding the other party to perform the contract in time and warning the consequences of breach of contract, and most of them occur on the eve of litigation. A good lawyer's letter should be concise, to the point, tough and flexible, so as to "defeat the enemy without fighting". However, in practice, some lawyers write their letters casually, or use ordinary stationery or other stationery that is not on the head of the law firm, which reduces the seriousness of legal documents; Or use angry and extreme words, in addition to venting dissatisfaction and intensifying the opposition between the two sides, it will not help solve the problem at all; What's more, some lawyers' letters did not carefully scrutinize the wording and discussion content, exposing the weak links and problems of customers to each other. Instead of warning, it became a "suggestion" to remind the other party to reinforce the evidence in time and take defensive measures, which reversed the situation of both sides. For example, I once received a lawyer's letter from the opposing lawyer, in which the statement part wrote out the key time points and procedures about the other party's performance of the contract. As an important document to prove the other party's first breach of contract, we found it in time and incorporated it into the evidence, which eventually led to the other party's failure. (1) What's the use of a lawyer's letter? Generally, there are several effects such as announcement, persuasion, inquiry and reply, as follows: 1. Declaring a lawyer's letter not only has the function of urging the other party to perform, but also has the function of declaring legal rights and realizing certain legal provisions. According to the law, the infringer sends a lawyer's letter to the infringed person, which constitutes an act of claiming rights from the other party, thus playing the role of interrupting the limitation of action. In addition, it can also play a role in urging the recipient to stop the infringement and destroy the infringing products. If the party who receives the letter refuses to correct it without reasonable reasons, according to the relevant laws and regulations of our country, the negative attitude of the recipient who refuses to act reasonably may turn him from an uninformed person into a negligent infringer or an intentional infringer. 2. Persuade the client's intention to formally inform the recipient in writing through legal channels and ask the recipient to do or not do anything. Bank loans overdue, if the lender fails to repay the loan on time, the bank may entrust a lawyer to issue a repayment power of attorney to the lender; If the goods have been delivered, and the payment for the goods is sinking into the sea, the owner has the right to entrust a lawyer to send a lawyer's letter to the consignee to urge the payment; If the property management company provides services to the owner or tenant, but cannot collect the property fee, the property management company may entrust a lawyer to issue a Power of Attorney for Collecting the Property Management Fee to the owner or tenant. 3. Inquiry is used to understand and inquire about relevant legal matters. For example, in the process of due diligence, lawyers need to know relevant information from government departments or relevant third parties, such as the tax payment of the respondents, whether there are any lawsuits, whether there are problems in environmental protection, and whether the contract has been fully fulfilled. The lawyer is entrusted by the client to issue a lawyer's letter to a third party to inquire about related issues. 4. Reply For some questions involving the legal field, the parties can entrust a lawyer to reply in the form of a lawyer's letter, which is more solemn and rigorous. (2) How to write a lawyer's letter can be divided into five parts: head, head, body, tail and foot. Among them, the head and foot mainly use the unified format of the law firm, without much skill. The following focuses on the head, body and tail: 1. The header can be written in the following two ways: one is "imitation of foreign language writing", which is suitable for foreign-related customers such as foreign-funded enterprises, and the client writes in the upper left of the first line in advance: "Recipient: ××××× (full name of client)". The second line is blank, the third line writes the title of the lawyer's letter, the fourth line writes the signal, the fifth line is blank, the sixth line writes "Sincere respect:" in the top box on the left, and the seventh line begins to write the text. The other is "Chinese writing", which is suitable for state-owned, collective or private enterprises, that is, the first line is left blank, the second line is written with the title of lawyer's letter, the third line is written with signal, the fourth line is left blank, the fifth line is written with the full name of the recipient, the last recipient's name is marked with a full-width colon, and the sixth line begins to write the text. No matter how you write it, the recipient's name can't be abbreviated, which is disrespectful to customers; The sending number generally consists of the word, year and serial number of the sending company. In addition, the title of the lawyer's letter should not be simply written as "lawyer's letter", so it is difficult for readers to directly understand the main idea of the document. 2. The text is generally divided into four parts: the source of entrustment-a summary of facts-legal quotation and lawyer's comments-threatening demands or opinions. Among them: l The sources of entrustment are mainly about clients, entrusted law firms, appointed lawyers and entrusted matters. The basic presentation method is as follows: XXX Law Firm (hereinafter referred to as our firm) accepts the entrustment of XXX (hereinafter referred to as our firm) and appoints XXX lawyer (hereinafter referred to as our lawyer) to issue this lawyer's letter. The common mistake in this part is that lawyers often send letters to clients in their own names, which does not meet the requirements of China's lawyers' practice norms that law firms accept entrustment and handle business in the name of law firms. L the fact summary should pay attention to the special writing of this part, which does not need to be developed in detail like a legal opinion, but simply summarizes the facts and controversial points according to the materials submitted by the client and the statement of the client. This is because the main function of lawyer's letter is "statement" rather than "analysis". If the analysis is too detailed, it will be a presumptuous guest usurps the host's role. This part refers to the law and lawyers' opinions, which is contrary to the fact summary. Although the length of lawyer's letter is often short, this part often needs to quote the full text of laws and regulations. Why? This is because the lawyer's letter not only has the function of "declaration", but also has the function of "persuasion", and the simplest way to persuade readers is to "convince people by law". By quoting the full text of the law, we can effectively establish our own discussion basis. This method is the simplest and most direct. After the law was promulgated, lawyers began to comment, combined with fact summary and law evaluation, and finally reached the legal rights and obligations of both parties. The last part of the threatening request or opinion is that the lawyer informs the other party in a professional tone and asks him to complete the prescribed matters within the prescribed time limit. On the basis of the requirements, further "threaten", if the other party does not comply with the requirements, what adverse circumstances and consequences will it face, such as bearing related expenses or losses. And strengthen the majesty of the lawyer's letter and the status of the client. Attention should be paid to this part of the threatening content, and the wording should be firm but not too hasty. The relationship between the two sides should not deteriorate excessively, nor should it dampen the enthusiasm of the other side for reconciliation. And this part should not be exaggerated and become an illegal threat. In short, the style and language of writing should take into account the characteristics of the other party. If it belongs to ordinary people, it should be well understood; If it belongs to legal persons and mass organizations, it can be more formal; If you are a professional, you should use French. 3. The tail is mainly composed of four parts: the seal of the law firm, the lawyer's signature, the date of signature and the contact information. The first three parts are written in the top box on the right, in which the lawyer's signature should be handwritten and the lawyer's name should be printed below. Date of signing In order to avoid scribbling, the full names of the firm and the issuing lawyer should be printed as much as possible. The last line indicates the lawyer's contact information, so that the other party can contact the lawyer in time. A complete trailer format is as follows: Lawyer of XX Law Firm: _ _ _ _ _ _ Whatever the purpose, the purpose of the lawyer's letter should be straight to the point, specific and accurate. The writing of lawyer's letter is not a literary creation, not to stimulate the imagination and appreciate the real taste, and it is meaningless to beat around the bush. L appropriately compare the warning letter to the infringer, the letter to the lawyer of the government department and the letter to the court. Based on different recipients, the writing style and wording should be very different. The former should be strict without losing grace, while the latter two are neither supercilious nor supercilious. There is a simple method of fixing paragraphs: according to the above criteria for dividing the text of a lawyer's letter, the full text is divided into four paragraphs. Each paragraph begins with a central sentence and then echoes the central sentence at the end. The full text uses the active voice and is stated in a positive tone.