Draft/Featured

Draft a demand letter that moves money

Writes the demand with the wrong in the first sentence, damages that show their arithmetic, and a deadline with a stated consequence, without handing the other side a free preview of your case.

About 12 minstarterLitigation, Solo / small firm

Your prompt4,850 characters

Still to fill in: Your client, Recipient, Facts and claims, Damages with math, Governing law / where you would file

RoleYou are a senior litigator who has sent thousands of demand letters and tried the cases that did not settle. You write demands that opposing counsel carries into their client's office with a recommendation to pay. You never threaten what you are not prepared to file, and you write every sentence assuming it becomes Exhibit A.What I needDraft the demand letter from Your client to Recipient on the facts below.InputsFacts and claims: Facts and claims From: Your client To: Recipient Damages: Damages with math Law / forum: Governing law / where you would file Response deadline: 10 days Posture: aggressiveHow to work this1. First sentence names the party, the act, the date, and the number. Never "I represent." Then the facts as short numbered paragraphs in date order, one fact each, with the exhibit named; a missing date is [DATE NEEDED]. 2. One paragraph of law: name the cause of action, walk its elements, tie each to a numbered fact paragraph. 3. Show the arithmetic from Damages with math on its own line, every quantity derived from the deliveries, prices, and dates in Facts and claims. If the count or the rate does not follow from those facts, show both computations and tell me which to send. Then price interest, fee-shifting, and any multiplier under Governing law / where you would file. 4. Give the deadline as a calendar date computed from 10 days, with one sentence on what happens the next morning, promising only what aggressive supports. Say whether Governing law / where you would file requires pre-suit notice with mandatory content. Cut anything that previews work product.Close with these four sections, every time, without being askedAssumptions I made. Every factual, legal, and strategic assumption in the letter. Mark each [verify] or [safe]. Flag specifically whether you assumed the agreement has no notice-and-cure or mandatory-mediation provision, and whether the damages components are documented or estimated. Where this is weakest. The two or three sentences opposing counsel will call bluster: the unsupported number, the element with no fact under it, the threat my posture does not back. Quote the sentence. What only you can decide. The judgment calls I deliberately did not make. Present each as options with tradeoffs. At minimum: mark the letter as a Rule 408 settlement communication, which protects the number if the case is tried but weakens its later use to show notice and refusal, or send it unmarked, where it proves notice and supports a fee or bad-faith claim but the number becomes an anchor you own. Also: demand the full figure or a discounted early-resolution figure, and whether to copy the business principal or go lawyer-to-lawyer. What would make this materially better. The specific document or date that would most strengthen the demand: the notice-and-cure clause, the cover invoices, the written admission. Rank by impact.Output formatA complete letter ready for letterhead: hard opening sentence, numbered dated fact paragraphs with exhibits, one paragraph of law, damages math on its own lines, interest and fees, a calendar deadline with its consequence, sign-off. Then the four sections.Never do this- If this letter could be re-addressed to another company in another dispute and still make sense, it is too generic. Rebuild it from my dates, my documents, my number. - No hedging filler. Cut "arguably," "it appears that," and "we believe there may be." Do not tell me to consult an attorney. I sign this letter. - Never invent a fact, a date, an exhibit, or a dollar figure. Every statute or case must come from my inputs or carry [UNVERIFIED - check before sending]. A fabricated cite in a demand costs credibility you cannot get back. - Where you do not know whether Governing law / where you would file requires pre-suit notice or allows fee-shifting, say you do not know. Do not smooth the gap over with confident prose. - Never threaten criminal prosecution, a regulatory referral, or a bar complaint to gain settlement leverage. It is an ethics problem, not a strategy. - Do not pad. If the wrong takes four fact paragraphs, write four. Length is not value.Before you answer- Does the first sentence state what they did, or does it recite who I am? - Can the recipient check my arithmetic unaided, and is the deadline a calendar date with a consequence? - Does the unit count in my damages math actually follow from the deliveries in my facts, or did I copy a figure without reconciling it? - Is every legal proposition sourced to my inputs or marked unverified? - Would this letter make sense mailed to anyone else? It should not.

Adds driver's-seat tunes: options instead of answers, questions before work, every citation flagged. Your values come with it.

Pressure-test it

Makes the AI switch hats and attack its own answer.

The only reader who matters here is in-house counsel at Recipient, who is paid to find the sentence that means the sender is not really going to file. Read it as the lawyer who has to recommend doing nothing: name the three softest spots and quote them. For each, tell me what you would say to your CEO to justify ignoring the letter, then rewrite the sentence so that argument stops working.

Go deeper

Pushes the work further once the basics are right.

The deadline passes and nothing comes back. Draft the follow-up that goes out the next morning: four sentences, no new arguments, no new deadline, and a single line confirming the complaint is being filed. Then add a two-line internal note to the file on whether filing is actually the right move given what the silence tells us.

Before you run it

What to gather first

Who you represent and who receives the letter, including their counsel if known
The facts with dates, and which of them are documented
The cause of action you would actually plead
The damages number and how you built it
Governing law, where you would file, and any pre-suit notice requirement

Watch for

Demand letters become trial exhibits and get attached to complaints. Assume a jury reads every sentence, including the ones written in frustration.
Many claims carry mandatory pre-suit notice with specific required content: consumer protection, construction defect, professional liability, claims against public entities. A defective letter can cost a filing date or a fee award.
Rule 408 and its state analogues do not protect everything. Marking a letter "for settlement purposes only" also limits how you can use it later to prove notice and refusal.
Threatening criminal charges, regulatory complaints, or bar discipline to extract payment is a disciplinary risk in most jurisdictions and can be extortion in some.
The model will state damages more confidently than your evidence supports. Confirm every component of the number ties to an invoice, a contract, or a witness.

What comes back

A complete demand letter, roughly 1.5 to 2 pages: an opening sentence that states the wrong, numbered dated fact paragraphs with exhibit references, a one-paragraph legal basis walking the elements, damages arithmetic set off on its own lines, interest and fees, a calendar deadline with a stated consequence, a reservation of rights, and a sign-off. Closes with the four collaboration sections.

See an example of what you’ll get

May 14, 2025 Dear Ms. Chen: BetaCorp stopped delivering under its February 12, 2025 supply agreement with Acme Holdings on April 1, and Acme has incurred $744,000 in cover damages as a result. 1. On February 12, 2025, the parties executed a supply agreement (Ex. A) requiring BetaCorp to deliver 12,000 units of Component X per month for six months at $48 per unit. 2. BetaCorp delivered 8,400 units in March 2025 (3,600 short of the 12,000 required) and none of the 12,000 due in April. 3. On April 14, 2025, BetaCorp's Chief Operating Officer wrote that BetaCorp "cannot perform" (Ex. B). 4. Acme covered through three replacement vendors at an average of $97 per unit between April 16 and May 9, 2025 (Ex. C). This is a straightforward breach. Acme performed, BetaCorp repudiated in writing, and Acme covered in good faith and without unreasonable delay. Under California Commercial Code § 2712, a buyer who covers recovers the difference between the cover price and the contract price, together with incidental and consequential damages [UNVERIFIED - confirm section number and current text before sending]. The number: March shortfall: 12,000 required − 8,400 delivered = 3,600 units April shortfall: 12,000 required − 0 delivered = 12,000 units Undelivered units: 3,600 + 12,000 = 15,600 Cover differential: $97 average cover price − $48 contract price = $49 per unit 15,600 units × $49 = $764,400 Less mitigation credits = ($20,400) Total = $744,000 Prejudgment interest runs at 10% under Cal. Civ. Code § 3289(b) if no contract rate applies [UNVERIFIED], which on $744,000 adds roughly $6,200 per month. Acme will accept $744,000 in full settlement if payment is received by Wednesday, May 28, 2025, fourteen days from the date of this letter. If Acme has no written response by that date, it will file suit in the Northern District of California on Thursday, May 29, seeking the full amount plus interest and costs. Nothing here waives any right or remedy. Sincerely, J. Alvarez --- Assumptions I made. The February 12 agreement contains no notice-and-cure or mandatory-mediation clause [verify - this is the single most likely way this letter backfires]. The $20,400 mitigation credit is documented, not estimated [verify]. California law governs and no contractual interest rate applies [verify against § 18 of Ex. A]. The demand covers the March and April shortfalls only, which is where your 15,600 units comes from. The agreement runs six months, so May units are already due and June through August will accrue [verify the theory you want: if the April 14 letter is a total repudiation, the claim is the remaining term (63,600 undelivered units rather than 15,600) and the number is roughly four times this one]. Where this is weakest. "Acme covered in good faith and without unreasonable delay" is doing real work with no support in front of it. BetaCorp will argue the $97 price was commercially unreasonable and that Acme could have sourced at $70. Add one sentence naming the three vendors and the quotes you rejected. What only you can decide. Whether to mark this Rule 408. Marked, the number stays out if you try the case; unmarked, the April 14 admission plus this letter builds a clean record of notice and refusal that supports interest from an earlier date. Also yours: demand the full $744,000, or open at $744,000 and signal a $625,000 landing zone in the same letter. The second closes faster and tells them your floor. What would make this materially better. Ranked by impact. (1) Section 18 of Ex. A, and any notice-and-cure or dispute-resolution clause. If one exists, this letter is premature and the deadline is wrong. (2) The three cover invoices behind the $97 average, with the quotes Acme rejected. That blended figure is the number BetaCorp attacks, and right now there is nothing under it. (3) Backup for the $20,400 mitigation credit: an unexplained deduction reads as negotiated rather than computed, and it invites a counter-deduction. (4) Whether Acme has replaced BetaCorp for the rest of the term, which decides whether this is a two-month shortfall letter or a repudiation claim on all six months.

Why this prompt is built the way it is

## Framework 1. **Open with the wrong, not the recital.** The first sentence names the party, the act, the date, and the number. Then the facts in short dated paragraphs, one fact each, exhibits named. 2. **Law in one paragraph.** Name the cause of action, walk the elements, tie each to a numbered fact. No string cites. 3. **Damages with visible math, reconciled against the facts.** Show the arithmetic on its own line so the reader can check it, and price interest, fees, and any multiplier separately. They move the settlement calculus more than the base number. 4. **Clear the notice statutes and set a deadline that means it.** Consumer, construction defect, med-mal, and government-claim statutes impose mandatory pre-suit content; the deadline is a calendar date with a sentence about what happens the next morning. 5. **Confident, never abusive, and never a free preview.** No insults, no verdict predictions, no threat of criminal or disciplinary referral, and nothing that gives away work product.