LETTER WRITING FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS

LETTER WRITING FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS

Practitioners are required to draft letters of various kinds, ranging from a covering letter to a letter before a civil action. In drafting letters, the conventions governing letter writing such as layout, salutation and complimentary close must be adhered to. Since the practitioner acts on behalf of a client in a professional capacity, the letter should be written in plain English. It should never be conversational; thus, can’t, won’t, they’re, and so on, should not be used. Such an informal style of writing is inappropriate. In Weston v. Central Criminal court, Courts Administrator (1977) 1 QB 32 at 39, the Court of Appeal observed that the letter was discourteous and rude.

Every letter should bear a date. The day should be written in figures, the month in words and the year in figures. The month and year should not be abbreviated but be written in full. Dates should not be punctuated. However, it is permissible to insert a comma after the month. The month should be written out in words, while the day and year should be written in figures.

A letter must bear a heading or caption, for example, if a client is being informed about progress in a suit, then the heading of the letter will be the suit number and the parties to the suit

Letters written for a firm should be written in either the first person singular, that is “I” or in the first person plural “We”. Where it is intended that the letter should be read only by the addressee, the expression ‘Strictly Private and Confidential’, should be written on it.

No letter must be dispatched unsigned. A letter must be signed either by the writer or on his behalf.

There are two types of letters namely Simple (social or informal) letters; and Business (official or formal) letters.

Simple letters are those written to friends and relatives conveying a personal message while business letters are more formal than simple letters.

CHECKLISTS OF GUIDELINES FOR STANDARD LAWYER’S LETTER TO CLIENT

To write a good letter, one would have to look at the parts of a letter which are:

1)      Letterhead – This contains the names, address, references, and qualifications of the writer. It must be simple and sober.

2)      Date – The applicable mode in Nigeria is: the day, month (written in words), and year e.g. 4 December 2009.

3)      References – This is usually inserted. It is helpful when filing and making cross-references.

4)      Status of the letter – The word private and confidential (if necessary) should be included.

5)      Name and address of the recipient – Identify the reader by name, title or both.

6)      Salutation – The level of familiarity would consider what to salute with e.g. Dear Sir, Dear Mr. ABC.

7)      Subject head – This should give a summary of what the letter contains. It is recommended to be in sentence style capitalization and not in capital letters except where absolutely necessary e.g. My Expectation In Law School.

8)      Body of the letter – This is the bulk part of the letter which can be grouped under the following heads:

a)The opening – introduce or acknowledge the content of the letter.

b)   The middle – the actual message which may be one or more paragraphs (numbering is also accepted).

c)The closing – this is the expected action from the recipient.

9)      Complimentary closure of the letter – This is the choice or the mode of salutation. It should be noted that the closure is a determinant factor of the salutation. For example, Dear Sir closes with Yours faithfully; Dear Mr. ABC closes with Yours truly, etc.

10)  Name and signature of the writer – It is advisable to always sign on top of the name. When signing on behalf of someone, you must indicate it by adding the word “for”. For example, For: Mr. ABC. However, the expression “pp” is used in some cases.

11)  Enclosure – Where you enclose or attach other documents, you should indicate that fact and you may list or omit the list of the documents. (Encl is the short form of Enclosure).

12)  Copies – This is used where there is need to notify other persons about the message in the letter. It is known as the distribution list. (CC is the short form of Copies). It is also used to notify the recipient that same copy has been sent to other persons. But where a blind copy is to be sent to other persons, nothing should be shown on the letter.

HINTS ON WRITING LETTERS

1.      Be careful about your choice of words or spelling, and place all punctuations properly.

2.      Be polite, purposeful and firm. Also avoid over familiarity.

3.      Be brief, and as much as possible, restrict your letter to one page.

A good letter should have only one paragraph but where several paragraphs are necessary, each paragraph should contain only one idea distinct from other paragraphs.

Follow @wingrassnews