I have had this explained to me (per US law) as follows; If regular mail and registered mail is sent concurrently, one would have to prove that they do not reside at the like address that both mail pieces were sent to in order to take advantage of the various provisions allowed in the case that he alleges that he did not receive a legal notice. He would only have opportunity to do so after he found that one day, the money was ordered from his bank account or some other assets attached by the court. The court could only do this after a deposition has been taken, revealing the location of his assets. The deposition info would have to accompany all the letters of intent and notices required required by the court to act on the matter. From the other perspective, sending a letter by two methods satisfies the legal definition of having made 'reasonable effort' to reach a debtor before enacting the motion suggested by a legal notice. If the debtor is ignorant of the way the courts handle these matters, he may not realize that you don't really want to follow through by spending the required hundreds or thousands to get there. All this serves as is a bluff - It will have the appearance of having professional legal advice behind it - he might get scared and offer a settlement. A real slickster will just chuckle if he sees a letter of intent written by an EE or Programmer. There have been 3 methods that have worked for me. 1. Send a nice friendly letter suggesting that there might be a misunderstanding concerning the payment you expect. Also offer to discuss a friendly settlement on the phone. This implies that you not angry and are willing to accept a reduced amount. You can decide that when you hear his version of the story. 2. & 3.Either pay an attorney $25 to send letters out for you (if you want him to be friendly, just tell him so) or give up a large chunk for professional collection. Which brings up a funny story from about 15 years ago. I contributed to helping a new generation owner of an old NY company rebuild his business by providing new designs and manufacturing/assembly services for him. Things wen't very well for him, but he became overconfident, and grossly overspent to represent his products in Europe, where he spent something like $.5 mil on a first trade show there. needless to say, when it came time to pay my measly invoices, he didn't have the money. Designs in hand, he went to a contact assembly house, intending to cut me out. Someone who owed me a favor offered to have their collection agency pick it up without charge to me. A year later I found out that two big bouncers visited asking for $. When he said he had none to give, they lifted his desk and threw it through a nearby window. Bottom line: he went out of business before their next visit, and is nowhere to be found. I wrote off about $70k that year. It pays to be friendly and yet firm (aka professional), especially when they don't pay. Chris -----Original Message----- From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Andrzej Baranski Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 11:13 AM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: [PIC]: Contracting job gone wrong "Alan B. Pearce" wrote: > > > But he might refuse to accept a registered letter. > > There is however a little legal trick, valid as far as I know in all > > Western legal systems, at the end of your letter add a sentence : > > " This letter is send as a registered as well as ordinary one " > > Do you mean that with this annotation on the end of the letter, you send two > copies, one of which is by registered post? > Its better to send both. > What is the legal advantage of doing this, or of the annotation? I'm not a lawyer, a long time ago I was advised to use it , and it did work. As far as I recall the legal advantage is in fact that, refusing to accept a registered letter he has to prove, in court case, that he hasn't received the other one. Which is extremely difficult if not impossible, and means that he was aware of your demands. Andy > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads