Formalities of legal letter writing

  

Date Posted: 1/29/2012 2:57:42 AM

Posted By: Maxwellgoko  Membership Level: Bronze  Total Points: 45

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1. Have a head note paper with your:

• Name
• Address
• Other forms of contact details such as telephone number, fax and e-mail.

2. Addressees address

• Place it on the top left side part of the paper.

3. Salutation

• When writing to a known person, use their family name e.g. Dear Mr. Omondi
• When writing to an unknown person, use Dear Sir/Madam

4. Heading

• This identifies the legal matter
• When writing on behalf of a defendant, you can write his name first then place the notation “ats” to mean at the suit of.

5. Opening

• Ensure that the recipient knows why you are writing and put the letter in the reader’s context.

6. Body of the letter

• On the body, use further sub headings to capture the attention of the reader.
• State the purpose of the letter.
• The content of the body varies depending on the type of the letter.

7. Ending

If in the salutation you used the word sir/madam conclude with ‘yours faithfully’. But if you used dear name e.g. Dear Okech conclude with ‘yours sincerely’, sign and write your name.

8. Attachments

If you had some documents which needed to be attached identify them through listing their names in abbreviation at the bottom of the letter. The list will help the receiver to confirm whether he has received all the documents attached.

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