I totally agree than calling on lawyers should be a last resort. But the article says "I wrote them about twenty letters into every form or email I ever found." This is the last resort.
Based on the wording and the table of contents I'm pretty sure lawyers were involved in at least reviewing this open letter. A final ditch effort before the real expenses begin.
Yes that’s the idea. They’ve spent a bit of money to make a sincere and well-founded request that will cause you to consult your own lawyer who will explain to you why you’re probably doing something wrong and need to do what the letter asks of you.
I'm saying no such thing, and it's neither courteous nor constructive to twist words like that.
You keep asserting that it's not necessarily to have a lawyer review a letter, despite the letter being legal in nature and in this case clearly coming from someone who is looking to cause trouble. Clearly you and I have very different attitudes to risk in this respect.
In any case, an obligation to comply with the law is self-evident. My objection is that the law itself is poorly implemented and that what is necessary to comply is ambiguous.
Lawyers sending letters to discourage actions they do not like are fairly standard. I've had attorneys tell me that if you are not getting letters like this, you aren't making enough of an impact. And to be clear, this is just a letter - tossing one of these out just to see if it works is an easy tactic because many smaller organizations are terrified of litigation, and will cave to demands even if there is no legal basis for them.
Do take the letters seriously... determine whether there are valid legal claims presented. But if there are not, it is a scare tactic, so don't stress over it.
As dysfunctional as the legal system seems to be at times, I'd be pretty surprised if she could find a lawyer willing to try that. At the very least, she'd half to pay a fair amount out of pocket just to initiate the suit, and this is someone who already hasn't shown much persistence in just getting the email address corrected with her provider.
A lawyer would presumably tell her that a case against me would certainly fail, and the healthcare provider has much deeper pockets. Go after them.
> How does it work for a paper mail - from what I understand it could be illegal to open any letter originated to some other person's name.
This is a federal law called "Obstruction of Correspondence" and it is fairly specific to USPS mail. It applies to letters & packages that are either in a postal facility (including the mailbox) or have transited through it. It does not apply to email.
Sending back a letter on a lawyer's letterhead is also a negotiating tactic. It's probably what I'd have done as well. Emailing back from joe_blow_blog_157@gmail doesn't send the same signal as "deal with my lawyer; we think we're right; what's your next move?"
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