A legal threat is a statement by a party that it intends to take

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

on another party, generally accompanied by a demand that the other party take an action demanded by the first party or refrain from taking or continuing actions objected to by the demanding party.

Nature

Legal threats take many forms. Common to all is that the party making the

threat A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...

will take some form of action of a legal nature. Most common is the threatened initiation of a

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...

against the second party. Other threats might include an

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as " regulations"), ...

action or complaint, referring the other party to a

regulatory Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. ...

body, turning the party into the legal authorities over a crime or civil infraction, or the like. Legal threats are often veiled or indirect, e.g. a threat that a party "shall be forced to consider its legal options" or "will refer the matter to legal counsel."

Types

Cease and desist

A cease and desist (C&D) letter is a formalized legal demand that a party stop ("cease") and refrain ("desist") from an activity that the demanding party finds objectionable, generally couched in formal language accusing the activity of violating the law. The objected-to activity may be most anything, although cease-and-desist letters are particularly common among certain areas of the law: *alleged

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

infringement (e.g.

patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...

trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

, etc.) *alleged

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

such as

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defi ...

and

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...

nuisance Nuisance (from archaic ''nocence'', through Fr. ''noisance'', ''nuisance'', from Lat. ''nocere'', "to hurt") is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public (also "common") ...

, and other

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

s *violation of certain agreements to not engage in certain commercial conduct (e.g. with respect to competition, territories, etc.) *where a personal financial and legal administrator (e.g. as commonly appointed in Australia) acting under an Order of a court for a represented person (e.g. a person with an alleged disability) for a specified time, as specified in the Order, continues the administration beyond the anniversary date (end date) of the Order, against the represented person's wishes.

Demand letter

A "demand letter" is a formalized demand by a party that another party pay money or take certain acts, often accompanied by a claim that the second party has engaged in illegal conduct, with an implicit or explicit threat that the demanding party will take some form of legal action.

Effect

For the most part, a legal threat is of no legal significance other than a matter of negotiation tactics; however, in certain instances a legal threat does have some legal significance. Among other things, a legal threat may do the following: * Establish

notice Notice is the legal concept describing a requirement that a party be aware of legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice (or legal notice), actual notice, constructive notice ...

- the party receiving the threat, and the party making the threat, are "on notice" of the circumstances and cannot later claim they were unaware. * Constitute

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

, or some other crime or tort involving improper threats of harm: for example, it is considered unethical, and in some cases a crime, to threaten to report criminal conduct to the police unless a

settlement Settlement may refer to: * Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

is reached. * In some circumstances, a claim (veiled or not) that a party will take action based on alleged violation of the law gives rise to a right by the receiving party to bring an action for

declaratory judgment A declaratory judgment, also called a declaration, is the legal determination of a court that resolves legal uncertainty for the litigants. It is a form of legally binding preventive by which a party involved in an actual or possible legal ma ...

that it has not broken the law: for example, if the holder of a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...

claims that a party is infringing a trademark, that party may bring suit asking a court to declare that there is in fact no infringement. In addition to their legal significance, legal threats may create a number of practical results: * Intimidating a party into acquiescing to the demand, whether or not there is a legal basis for it, out of fear of litigation expense, negative publicity, loss of entitlement (e.g. losing a business license), or other negative consequence * Alerting a party to illegal conduct it was unaware of, or that it did not realize was illegal or objectionable * Delaying or disrupting lawful and legitimate activity, as the victim of the threats must devote time to obtaining expensive legal counsel. * Risking public disclosure of the threat, thereby portraying the party making the threat in a bad light (see the Streisand effect). Threats of frivolous litigation against major news organisations are extraordinarily risky in this regard, as the newspaper will most often report the threat in the paper itself.

References

External links

chillingeffects.org
- database of "cease-and-desist" letters {{DEFAULTSORT:Legal Threat Legal documents Informal legal terminology