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

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

Threat

Threat of force in public international law is a situation between states described by British lawyer Ian Brownlie as:The 1969 Vienna convention on the Law of Treaties notes in its preamble that both the threat and the use of force are prohibited...

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

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 against the second party. Other threats might include an administrative law

Administrative law

Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...

 action or complaint, referring the other party to a regulatory 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."

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
  Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
  
   infringement (e.g. patent infringement
  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 vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
  
  , trademark infringement
  Trademark infringement
  Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees...
  
  , copyright infringement
  Copyright infringement
  Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
  
  , etc.)
• alleged defamation such as libel and slander
• harassment
  Harassment
  Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...
  
  , nuisance
  Nuisance
  Nuisance is a common law tort. It means that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public or private. A public nuisance was defined by English scholar Sir J. F...
  
  , and other tort
  Tort
  A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...
  
  s
• violation of certain agreements to not engage in certain commercial conduct (e.g. with respect to competition, territories, etc.)

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 of legal threat

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
  Notice is the legal concept in which a party is made aware of a legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice , actual notice, constructive notice, and implied notice....
  
   - the party receiving the threat, and the party making the threat, are "on notice" of the circumstances and cannot later deny they were unaware.
• Constitute extortion
  Extortion
  Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
  
  , blackmail
  Blackmail
  In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
  
  , 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 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
  Declaratory judgment
  A declaratory judgment is a judgment of a court in a civil case which declares the rights, duties, or obligations of one or more parties in a dispute. A declaratory judgment is legally binding, but it does not order any action by a party. In this way, the declaratory judgment is like an action to...
  
   that it has not broken the law: for example, if the holder of a trademark
  Trademark
  A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
  
   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
• Risking public disclosure of the threat, thereby portraying the party making the threat in a bad light (see the Streisand effect
  Streisand effect
  The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
  
  )

See also

• Abuse of process
  Abuse of process
  Abuse of process is a cause of action in tort arising from one party making a malicious and deliberate misuse or perversion of regularly issued court process not justified by the underlying legal action.It is a common law intentional tort...
  
  
• Barratry
  Barratry
  Barratry is the name of four legal concepts, three in criminal and civil law, and one in admiralty law.* Barratry, in criminal and civil law, is the act or practice of bringing repeated legal actions solely to harass...
  
  
• Franchise fraud
  Franchise fraud
  Franchise fraud is defined by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as a pyramid scheme.- Franchise fraud in U.S. federal law :The FBI website states:...
  
  
• Frivolous litigation
  Frivolous litigation
  In law, frivolous litigation is the practice of starting or carrying on law suits that, due to their lack of legal merit, have little to no chance of being won. The term does not include cases that may be lost due to other matters not related to legal merit...
  
  
• Malicious prosecution
  Malicious prosecution
  Malicious prosecution is a common law intentional tort, while like the tort of abuse of process, its elements include intentionally instituting and pursuing a legal action that is brought without probable cause and dismissed in favor of the victim of the malicious prosecution...
  
  
• Strategic lawsuit against public participation
  Strategic lawsuit against public participation
  A strategic lawsuit against public participation is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition....
  
  
• Vexatious litigation
  Vexatious litigation
  Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a...
  
  

External links

• chillingeffects.org - database of "cease-and-desist" letters