Ensure Legal Compliance with eSignature Legality for Cease and Desist Letters

How to eSign a document: e-signature legality for Cease and Desist Letter

I'm Erin hall an attorney in Minneapolis Minnesota today we're talking about cease and desist letters what are they who can send one when can I send one what do I need to know about them what do they do what are some common mistakes well a cease and desist letter is quite simply a letter asking someone to stop doing something and in general the letter should ask someone to stop doing something illegal because they're entitled to do something if it's legal so you might see it for copyright infringement please stop using my image or my music in a way that infringes my copyright you might see it in trademark infringement similar reasons you might see it in an area of defamation like slander or libel please stop talking bad about me in a way that's false because it has a tendency to harm my reputation cease your defamatory comments for example cease and desist letter could be used for a contract please cease and desist or stop breaching the contract so as you can see there are all sorts of illegal conduct where you could be asking somebody a cease and desist now why would you do this well it's less expensive and aggressive than a lawsuit so typically if a party is interested in suing another party they would first say hey please stop the illegal activity so I don't have to go to court and have a judge order you to stop even if you're not contemplating a lawsuit a cease and desist letter is a nice way to put them on notice that they need to stop out of the the honor of the agreement or in honor of the law that they're violating who can send one well anybody can send one you could send one your neighbor could send one typically though they're sent from a law firm because when they're coming from law leatherhead the person receiving it knows you're serious knows that you mean business but again anybody can send it because it's a letter now there's nothing magic about it there typically isn't any legal effect to it except it puts the other party on notice that you know what they're doing and they're if they continue it's with full knowledge that they're doing it illegally so sometimes notice is an element in a legal issue and so to that extent a cease and desist letter can fulfill the notice requirement for example if you put somebody on notice and they continue to infringe your trademark of your copyright they no longer can say hey I didn't know that I was infringing they've converted from perhaps good faith to bad faith because now there are notice and they're continuing to infringe what are some common mistakes well one common mistake is kind of a one-size-fits-all template really a cease and desist letter should state the type of illegal activity that's occurring the reason it's illegal so the contract or the law that establishes it's illegal and then where do we go from here are you just asking them to stop are you asking them to acknowledge that they will stop by sending a letter confirming that are you asking for some sort of public apology or private apology or maybe you're saying you need to pay me some money to avoid getting sued in other words I'm proposing a settlement here in addition to this letter that says cease and desist I've done these of all sorts all these different types are examples where I've worked with clients and they they've asked for anything from please stop to stop and pay $100,000 for the damages that you've already caused through your own full actions what are some other common mistakes people make well it's a mistake to not have it sent by an attorney because it just doesn't look professional and if the whole idea is to demonstrate that you're serious about something sending it on your own letterhead probably doesn't accomplish that that's said there may be no harm perhaps you want to send a letter first on your own and then get an attorney involved if you need to other common mistakes are not stating with specificity what is the illegal conduct that's occurring and that it needs to stop or beating around the bush saying you know you've done this you done this but not really saying you must cease and desist those are some examples and then of course there's obvious stuff like the letter not looking professional grammar spelling or format problems issues or inaccuracies if you have questions about sending a cease and desist letter and your issue relates to one of some sort of illegal activity you can contact an attorney in your state attorneys generally are licensed state by state so you'll want to contact an attorney in your state to write a letter on your behalf to address the illegal conduct that is harming you or your business I'm Aaron Hall an attorney in Minneapolis Minnesota for additional information feel free to see in the description below