Threat of legal sanction

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.

Legal threats take many forms. Common to all is that the party making the threat will take some form of action of a legal nature. Most common is the threatened initiation of a lawsuit against the second party. Other threats might include an administrative 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."

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:

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.

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:

In addition to their legal significance, legal threats may create a number of practical results:

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