Electronic correspondence. Five ways to convince the court to accept it as evidence. Email Correspondence as Written Evidence in Arbitration Scourge Contact Us
However, courts are wary of electronic documents and do not always accept them as proper evidence. In this article, five ways to get a court to accept email as evidence in a case.
QUESTION TO THE TOPIC
In what form is electronic correspondence submitted to the arbitration court?
There are no special requirements established by law. However, due to the fact that all evidence must be attached to the case (Articles 64, 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation), it can be concluded that electronic correspondence must be submitted on paper (determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated April 23, 2010 No. VAC-4481/10 ).
Preliminary Steps for E-mail to Be Evidence-Based
Electronic correspondence is a kind of written evidence (clause 3, article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, the Arbitration Procedure Code states that electronic messages can be classified as written evidence in the manner determined by law, an agreement or the Supreme Arbitration Court (clause 3, article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation as amended by Federal Law No. 228-FZ of July 27, 2010 ). Therefore, the parties can personalize their electronic messages in advance so that they later become admissible evidence in the case. This can be done in two ways.
Method one: giving legal force to the correspondence in the contract. Considering that counterparties have the right to determine the procedure for submitting written evidence on their own (clause 3 of article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation), they can give probative force to electronic correspondence in advance.
To do this, they need to prescribe the appropriate condition in the contract (conclude an additional agreement) indicating the email addresses that will be used by the parties, and those persons who will carry out such correspondence on behalf of the company.
In addition, as court practice shows, it would not be superfluous to indicate exactly what legal actions the parties agreed to carry out through electronic correspondence. In one of the disputes, the party to the case referred to the fact that in the questionnaire to the contract, the parties agreed on the use of e-mail with the designation of the address of the counterparty where documents should be sent. However, the arbitration court emphasized its position on the fact that "the e-mail address was indicated by the parties for the implementation of working correspondence, and not for the transfer of the results of work" (resolution of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dated 12.01.09 No. KG-A40 / 12090-08).
Without specifying in the contract the contact persons, e-mail addresses and issues that the parties can agree on in this manner, the court most likely does not recognize electronic correspondence as admissible evidence in the case (Decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dated February 27, 2010 No. KG-A41 / 531 -ten). Judicial practice with the opposite position of the courts is extremely insignificant (decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Urals District of June 28, 2010 No. Ф09-4726 / 10-С3).
Method two: using an electronic digital signature. An electronic digital signature (hereinafter referred to as the EDS) is equated to a handwritten signature in a paper document (clause 1, article 1 of the Federal Law No. 1-FZ of January 10, 2002 "On Electronic Digital Signature"). Undoubtedly, its use is one of the most reliable ways to identify electronic messages.
If the company submits to the court an e-mail that is signed by the digital signature of the other party, then it will not be necessary to establish the fact of sending and the authenticity of the e-mail. But here it is important not to miss one detail: in the event of a dispute, the court may require the submission of a document that confirms the agreement with the counterparty on the use of the EDS (Resolution of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North-Western District dated 03.03.09 No. F-04-1207 / 2009 (1502-A46 -eleven)).
QUESTION TO THE TOPIC
What should I do if the plaintiff's correspondence has not been preserved, and the counterparty has deleted it on his computer?
A party may ask the court, in order to provide evidence, to request from the company that provides technical support for the mail server, archival copies of electronic messages.
Evidence in court by means of electronic correspondence
Documents received via e-mail are appropriate evidence, subject to a comprehensive full assessment based on the totality of evidence, which is not contradicted by the information contained in the electronic correspondence of the parties (Decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dated February 17, 2010 No. KG-A40 / 14784-09 ). The company will simply need to prove the authenticity and validity of these letters. Here are some ways.
Method three: determining the details of e-mails. As stated in Article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code, written evidence includes documents that allow you to establish the authenticity of the document, that is, that it is signed by the appropriate person, correctly reflects the date and place of compilation, the addressee and other necessary information. In one of the cases, the court determined the data needed to confirm the accuracy of the information. These included: the recipient's and sender's e-mail addresses, information about the time and date of sending the e-mail, the mail server from which the e-mail was sent. Due to the lack of these data, the arbitration court did not accept the printouts of electronic correspondence presented by the company as evidence (decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District dated 07.07.08 No. Ф08-3751 / 2008).
Method four: conducting an examination. The authenticity of electronic evidence can be established by the conclusion of a forensic examination. To do this, you need to find an organization that conducts computer-technical expertise. You can turn to experts without waiting for the trial, or petition the court for an examination (clause 1, article 82 of the APC of the Russian Federation). Then the court will appoint an expert who will draw up an opinion and determine whether the correspondence really came from the parties to the case, establish its real content, time of departure and other data. The act of an expert opinion is accepted by the courts as evidence (decree of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dated January 20, 2010 No. KG-A40 / 14271-09).
Method five: drawing up a notarial protocol. One of the reliable ways to legalize electronic evidence is to draw up a notarial protocol. Companies have been using this method more and more in recent years. According to the law, notaries have the right to inspect written and physical evidence (Articles 102, 103 of the Fundamentals of Legislation on Notaries dated February 11, 1993 No. 4462-I, hereinafter referred to as the Fundamentals). The company can provide the notary with access to the computer and mail server where the correspondence is located. The notary will verify the authenticity of the correspondence, determine whether it really came from the parties to the case, and draw up a protocol that will give the electronic correspondence the form necessary for forensic evidence. The e-mails themselves must be printed and filed with the protocol. Such a record will be proof that, on a certain date, the email data actually contained electronic messages received from certain addresses. It is important to remember here that a notary will be able to draw up such a protocol only before the start of proceedings in court (Article 102 of the Fundamentals).
Most email clients, including gmail, Mail.ru, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, allow you to put multiple recipients in copy(abbreviation adopted in English SS), or Bcc (CCB). AT Copies recipients can see other people's addresses. In the second case, the identity of additional recipients is hidden.
Adding a recipient address
To specify the recipient(s) of the email, enter their email address in the field To whom (That):Some email clients allow you to simply enter a username in a field that is then automatically populated by the program.
If you use this field to send email to multiple people, each of them will be able to see the full list of other recipients.
How to copy an email
Field CC or Copy used to exchange electronic messages in a more indirect way than the field To whom. If you are not directly addressing a person in your email, but would like that person to follow the discussion in the email thread or just be aware of this topic, the field Copy would be a great option. Addressee located in Copies letters, receives an unread letter in his mailbox, just like the one who was placed in the box To whom; the difference is only in who you address the letter first in the body of your e-mail. In the professional world, mailing to Copies is used very widely and serves to keep colleagues informed about different events and topics.You can list email recipients by simply entering a list of addresses in the field Copy, which is usually located immediately below the field To whom. Everyone in this chain of recipients will be able to see the names and email addresses of all other recipients:
How to Bcc an Email
Every email client (Gmail, Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Yahoo, etc.) allows the sender of an email to reach out to a large number of people without exposing their details to other users in the email chain. This function is called BCC or Hidden copy. You can hide recipients by entering their addresses in the field Hidden copy instead of using fields To whom and Copy:You can use this feature for both individual and group emails. This is especially useful if you want to keep your contacts private, protect them from spam and spam, or simply don't want your recipients to know who received the same message.
Field Hidden copy not always available by default for all email clients. For example, in Outlook You will need to go to Options to access the setting; in Thunderbird you will need to select this function from the drop-down menu; in gmail you have to press the button Copy and Hidden copy; in Windows Live Mail You will need to simultaneously press the keys alt + B.
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Today, courts often accept electronic correspondence as written evidence. However, for this it must have legal force. Meanwhile, clear and unified rules and methods for determining the legitimacy of virtual correspondence have not yet been developed, which leads to a large number of problems.
Let's look at a few ways to give legal force to emails.
Gone are the days when letters on paper were the only means of communication. The development of economic relations between economic entities is already unthinkable without the use of information technology. This is especially true when counterparties are located in different cities or even countries.
Communication via electronic communication helps to reduce material costs, and also allows you to quickly develop a common position on specific issues.
However, such progress should not be viewed only on the positive side. Various disputes often arise between the subjects of economic relations, for their resolution they turn to the courts. The court makes a decision based on an assessment of the evidence provided by the parties.
At the same time, the relevance, admissibility, reliability of each evidence separately, as well as the sufficiency and interconnection of evidence in their totality are analyzed. This rule is fixed both in the APC of the Russian Federation (clause 2 of article 71) and in the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation (clause 3 of article 67). In the process of determining the admissibility and reliability of the evidence provided, the court often asks questions, the solution of which significantly affects the outcome of the case.
The use of electronic document management in relations between economic entities is regulated by the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, in paragraph 2 of Art. 434 states: a contract in writing can be concluded by exchanging documents via electronic communication, which makes it possible to reliably establish that the document comes from a party to the contract.
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 71 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation and paragraph 1 of Art. 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, written evidence is business correspondence containing information about the circumstances relevant to the consideration and resolution of the case, made in the form of a digital record and received via electronic communication.
For the use of electronic documents in legal proceedings, two conditions must be met. First, as already indicated, they must have legal force. Secondly, the document must be readable, that is, contain information that is generally understandable and accessible to perception.
This requirement follows from the general rules of legal proceedings, which presuppose the immediacy of judges' perception of information from sources of evidence.
Often, the court refuses to attach as evidence to the case materials electronic correspondence that does not meet the above conditions, and subsequently makes a decision that does not satisfy the legitimate requirements of the interested party.
Consider the main ways of legitimizing electronic correspondence before and after the start of proceedings.
Work with a notary
If a the case has not started yet, then in order to give legal force to electronic correspondence, you need to involve a notary. In paragraph 1 of Art. 102 of the Fundamentals of Notarial Legislation (Fundamentals) states that, at the request of interested parties, a notary provides evidence required in a court or administrative body if there is reason to believe that the presentation of evidence will subsequently become impossible or difficult. And in paragraph 1 of Art. 103 of the Fundamentals stipulates that in order to secure evidence, the notary examines written and material evidence.
According to paragraph 2 of Art. 102 of the Fundamentals, a notary does not provide evidence in a case that, at the time the interested persons apply to him, is in the proceedings of a court or an administrative body. Otherwise, the courts recognize the notarized electronic correspondence as inadmissible evidence (Resolution of the Ninth AAC dated March 11, 2010 No. 09AP-656 / 2010-GK).
It is worth recalling that based on Part 4 of Art. 103 Fundamentals, providing evidence without notifying one of the parties and interested parties is carried out only in cases of urgency.
In order to examine the evidence, a protocol is drawn up, which, in addition to a detailed description of the actions of the notary, must also contain information about the date and place of the inspection, the notary conducting the inspection, about the interested persons participating in it, as well as listing the circumstances discovered during the inspection. The e-mails themselves are printed out and filed with the protocol, which is signed by the persons participating in the inspection, by the notary and sealed with his seal. By virtue of the Determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated April 23, 2010 No. VAC-4481/10, the notarized protocol of the inspection of the electronic mailbox is recognized as proper evidence.
Currently, not all notaries provide e-mail certification services, and their cost is quite high. For example: one of the notaries of the city of Moscow charges 2 thousand rubles for one page of the descriptive part of the protocol.
A person interested in securing evidence shall apply to a notary with a relevant application. It should indicate:
- evidence to be secured;
- the circumstances that are supported by this evidence;
- the grounds on which the provision of evidence is required;
- the absence at the time of applying to the notary of the case in the proceedings of the court of general jurisdiction, arbitration court or administrative body.
Notaries inspect the contents of the electronic box either remotely, that is, they use remote access to the mail server (it can be a server of a provider providing an electronic communication service under an agreement; a mail server of a domain name registrar or a free Internet mail server), or directly from the computer of the person concerned , which has an e-mail program installed (Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Messenger, etc.).
For remote inspection, in addition to the application, the notary may need permission from the domain name registrar or Internet provider. It all depends on who exactly provides support for the work of mailboxes or an electronic mail server under the contract.
Provider confirmation
Resolutions of the Ninth AAC dated 04/06/2009 No. 09AP-3703 / 2009-AK, dated 04.27.2009 No. 09AP-5209/2009, FAS MO dated 05.13.2010 No. KG-A41 / 4138-10 stipulate that the courts also recognize the admissibility of electronic correspondence , if certified by the ISP or domain name registrar who are responsible for managing the mail server.
A domain name provider or registrar only certifies electronic correspondence at the request of an interested party if it manages the mail server and such a right is specified in the service agreement.
However, the volume of electronic correspondence can be quite large, which in turn can complicate the process of providing paper documents. In this regard, the court sometimes allows the provision of electronic correspondence on electronic media. Thus, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, in issuing its Decision dated August 1, 2008 in case No. A41-2326/08, referred to the admissibility of electronic correspondence submitted to the court on four CDs.
But when considering the case in the appellate instance, the Tenth AAC, by its Resolution dated 09.10.2008 in case No. A41-2326 / 08, recognized the link to electronic correspondence as unfounded and canceled the decision of the court of first instance, indicating that the interested party did not submit any documents provided for by the concluded parties contract.
Thus, e-mails relating to the subject of the dispute must be submitted to the court in writing, and all other documents can be submitted electronically.
To prove the facts stated in virtual correspondence, confirmation of the content of letters by referring to them in subsequent paper correspondence will help. The use of other written evidence is reflected in the Resolution of the Ninth AAC of December 20, 2010 No. 09AP-27221/2010-GK. Meanwhile, the court, considering the case and evaluating the evidence provided by the parties, has the right not to consider paper correspondence with links to electronic correspondence acceptable.
He only takes it into account and makes a decision based on a comprehensive analysis of all the evidence presented.
Get help from an expert
If a case has already started, then in order to give legal effect to electronic correspondence, it is necessary to use the right to involve an expert. In paragraph 1 of Art. 82 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, it is regulated that in order to clarify issues arising during the consideration of a case that require special knowledge, the arbitration court appoints an expert examination at the request of a person participating in the case, or with the consent of the persons participating in it.
If the appointment of an expert examination is prescribed by law or an agreement, or is required to verify a statement about the falsification of the submitted evidence, or if an additional or repeated expert examination is necessary, the arbitration court may appoint an expert examination on its own initiative. The appointment of an examination to verify the evidence presented is also provided for in Art. 79 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
In the application for the appointment of a forensic examination, it is necessary to indicate the organization and specific experts who will carry it out, as well as the range of issues for which the interested party decided to apply to the court for the appointment of an examination. In addition, information should be provided on the cost, timing of such an examination and deposited with the court in full for its payment. The involved expert must meet the requirements established for him in Art. 13 of the Federal Law "On State Forensic Activities in the Russian Federation".
Attachment to the case file as evidence of an expert's opinion on the authenticity of electronic correspondence is confirmed by judicial practice (Decision of the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow dated August 21, 2009 in case No. A40-13210 / 09-110-153; Resolution of the FAS MO dated January 20, 2010 No. KG-A40 /14271-09).
On the basis of an agreement
In paragraph 3 of Art. 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, it is noted that documents received via electronic communication are recognized as written evidence, if this is prescribed in the agreement between the parties. Accordingly, it is necessary to indicate that the parties recognize the legal force of correspondence and documents received by facsimile, the Internet and other electronic means of communication equal to the originals. At the same time, the contract must specify the e-mail address from which the electronic correspondence will go, and information about the authorized person authorized to conduct it.
The contract must state that the designated e-mail address is used by the parties not only for working correspondence, but also for the transfer of work results, which is confirmed by the position of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region in Resolution No. KG-A40 / 12090-08 dated 12.01.2009. The Decree of the Ninth AAC of December 24, 2010 No. 09AP-31261/2010-GK emphasizes that the contract should stipulate the possibility of using e-mail to approve the terms of reference and make claims about the quality of services rendered and work performed.
In addition, the parties may provide in the contract that notifications and messages sent by e-mail are recognized by them, but must be additionally confirmed within a certain period by courier or registered mail (Resolution of the Thirteenth AAC dated April 25, 2008 No. A56-42419 / 2007).
Summing up, we can say that at the moment there is a practice of using electronic correspondence by the courts as written evidence. However, taking into account the requirements of procedural law regarding the admissibility and reliability of evidence, virtual correspondence is taken into account by the court only if it has legal force.
In this regard, a large number of problems arise, since a unified methodology for determining the legitimacy of electronic correspondence has not yet been formed. The right of an interested party to apply to a notary in order to provide evidence is fixed, but there is no normative act of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation regulating the procedure for the provision of such services by notaries. As a result, there is no single approach to determining their value and the formation of a clear mechanism for the implementation of this right.
There are several ways to legally validate emails for evidence in court: securing emails with a notary public, notarizing with an ISP, by linking to emails in further paper communications, and forensic proof of their authenticity.
A competent approach to the timely provision of electronic correspondence as written evidence will allow business entities to fully restore their violated rights when resolving disputes.
Drafting various kinds of business letters is a necessary part of the work of business representatives. Thanks to such messages, they acquire the opportunity to solve commercial issues in the most accessible, fast and optimal way.
FILES
What are business letters
Conventionally, business letters can be divided into several main categories:
- congratulatory letter;
- information mail;
- etc.
A separate item can be marked as answers to all these letters, which are also part of official business correspondence and are also written according to certain canons.
Who should act as the author of the letter
Business letters must always contain a signature. At the same time, any employee of the company whose competence includes this function or authorized to do so by order of the director can be directly involved in compiling the letter. Usually this is a specialist or head of the structural unit in charge of the subject of the message. However, regardless of who is writing the letter, in any case, the letter must be submitted for approval to the manager, bearing in mind that it is written on behalf of the company.
General rules for writing business letters
All business messages should relate only to the activities of the company or the circumstances associated with it. At the same time, regardless of the content, they must comply with certain requirements.
First of all, it is a certain structure. The message should always include:
- writing date,
- details of the sender and recipient,
- polite address address (in the form of the wording “Dear Ivan Petrovich”, “Dear Elena Grigoryevna”),
It should be noted that letters can be addressed to both individual employees and entire teams (in this case, it is enough to confine ourselves to the greeting “Good afternoon!”).
Various additional documents, photo and video evidence may be attached to the letter - if any, this must be reflected in the main text.
The letter can be drawn up both on a regular standard sheet of A4 format, and on the letterhead of the organization. The second option is preferable, because with it you do not need to manually enter the details of the company, in addition, such a letter looks more solid and once again indicates that the message belongs to official correspondence. It can be written in handwritten form (letters written in calligraphic handwriting are especially successful), or printed on a computer (it is convenient when you need to create several copies of a letter).
The letter must be certified with a signature, but it is not necessary to stamp it, because. Since 2016, legal entities have been exempted from the need to use seals in their activities.
Before sending, the message, if necessary, is registered in the journal of outgoing documentation, in which it is assigned a number and the date of departure is set.
What to look for when writing a letter
When composing a letter, you need to carefully monitor spelling, adhere to the rules and norms of the Russian language in terms of vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, etc. Recipients always pay attention to how well the thoughts are expressed and framed in the message.
Do not forget that the studies conducted clearly show that people are not ready to spend more than one minute reading this kind of letters.
The letter must be written in the correct form, without “spreading the thought along the tree”, rather short and succinctly, to the point. Each new topic should be framed as a separate paragraph, which, if necessary, should be divided into paragraphs. In addition, a concise and clear letter will make it clear to the recipient that the author values his time. Here the saying “brevity is the sister of talent” is in place.
What Not to Do in a Business Letter
In business letters, a cheeky or frivolous tone is completely unacceptable, just like too dry text and banal “stamps”. You should also avoid complex formulations, an abundance of participial and participle turns, special terminology understandable to a narrow circle of specialists.
The letter should not include unverified, unreliable, and even more so, deliberately false information.
It must be borne in mind that this type of message is not only part of routine business correspondence, but, in many cases, refers to official documents that can later acquire the status of legally significant.
How to send a letter
Any official message can be sent in several basic ways.
- The first, the most modern and fastest, is through electronic means of communication. It is convenient and fast, besides, it allows you to send information of almost unlimited volume.
There is only one minus here - with a large amount of mail from the addressee, the letter can easily get lost or fall into the Spam folder, therefore, when sending letters in this way, it is advisable to additionally make sure that the letter has been received (via a simple phone call).
- The second way: conservative, which allows you to send a message by Russian Post. At the same time, it is recommended to use the function of sending by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt - this form guarantees that the letter will reach the addressee, about which the recipient will receive a special notification.
Typically, sending via standard mail is used in cases where original documents are sent, letters certified by living signatures and seals.
- Also, a letter can be sent via fax or various instant messengers, but only on condition that the relations between the partners are close enough and fully allow such a way of correspondence.
Letters of request are an integral, important and necessary part of business correspondence. On the one hand, these are tactful and diplomatic requests on current issues, on the other hand, they are a tool to achieve certain goals of the addressee. The purpose of any letter of request is to encourage the addressee to take certain actions necessary for the author of the letter. How to write a letter of request in order to get as close as possible to a positive answer?
Any request letter should include a well thought out rationale and a clear statement of the request. In addition, you can use techniques that increase the effectiveness of writing.
Step 1. Who are you asking?
Address the addressee personally, it is better - by name and patronymic:
“Dear Ivan Ivanovich!”, “Dear Mr. Ivanov!”
Firstly, you express your respect to the addressee, and secondly, a request addressed to a specific person imposes on him responsibility for its implementation. There are situations when a request is addressed to a team or a group of people. In this case, it is also desirable to personalize the appeal as much as possible:
“Dear colleagues!”, “Dear managers!”, “Dear junior employees!”, “Dear personnel officers!”
Step 2. Why are you contacting me?
Compliment the recipient. Making a compliment to the addressee, you answer his question: “Why are you addressing this question to me?” Note his past accomplishments or personal qualities.
“You are always ready to listen and find the best way to solve the problem of almost everyone who turned to you. And, I must give you credit, you helped a lot.”
"You are the leading expert in the field...".
“You have helped many to resolve the most difficult issues in the field of…”.
This technique will allow the addressee to take a closer look at the request and try to find an opportunity to satisfy it. fuck her.
A compliment is appropriate when it comes to non-standard requests, when you need to win over the addressee, when you need to pay attention to certain merits and qualities that are necessary and important to fulfill your request.
It is very important not to cross the line between a compliment and rude flattery. Be sincere.
Step 3. Justification of the request
Any request must be justified why you are making this particular request. Enter the addressee in the context of your problem.
At this stage, you need to select the three most significant arguments for the addressee. It is best to build arguments according to the scheme: strong - medium - strongest.
Requests come in different levels of complexity, so the addressee is not always interested in fulfilling someone's requests. He needs to be convinced that fulfilling the request carries a potential benefit:
Interest the addressee
Offer to implement some attractive opportunity for him related to the fulfillment of your request:
“At all times, businesslike, enterprising people sought not only to achieve material success, but also to leave their mark on the history of the Motherland, to be remembered for good deeds, to win respect.”
« The successful activity of any professional community is, first of all, understanding and support from friendly Unions, participation in joint events and projects».
« Of course, your big goal is a clean and comfortable city for people».
Or voice a problem that is very relevant for your addressee:
“You, as a wise owner of the city, are probably worried about the random walks of children of different ages in places unsuitable for this, which leads to more frequent accidents and an increase in juvenile delinquency.”
“There has been an increase in calls to your department on non-core issues, which takes up a lot of invaluable working time.”
Show how your request can help realize the opportunity:
« And today, when our country relies on young people, it is difficult to find a more necessary, sacred cause than helping young men and women from dysfunctional families. There are those in our city who are already providing such assistance - under the auspices of the mayor's office, our charitable center "Heritage" operates on donations from the townspeople, which teaches difficult teenagers folk crafts ».
Or solve the problem:
“Equipment of specialized places for pastime of children of different ages will help reduce the level of juvenile delinquency and minimize road accidents involving children.”
Describe the significance of the request
When there is nothing to offer the addressee or it is inappropriate in the context of this request, it is better to bring the addressee up to date. Here you need to describe the situation as fully as necessary to understand the relevance of the request and the importance of its implementation. The significance of the request must be described in such a way that it "takes the soul." If the request does not belong to the category of "soulful", then you need to show the addressee the cause-and-effect relationships, which will ensure that the addressee fulfills the request.
“From (date), according to the lease agreement No. X, the rent for 1 m 2 is 20 c.u. in a day. Over the past three months, there has been a decline in trading activity due to economic instability and social unrest. The average profit from trading is $10. per day, which is not enough even to pay rent. If no action is taken, then private entrepreneurs will be forced to close their outlets, which may negatively affect your income.”
Thus, you must make it clear to the addressee that the fulfillment of the request carries the prospect of receiving tangible or intangible benefits.
Step 4 Statement of Request
When the addressee is prepared, you can state the actual request. The text of the request should be sufficiently concise and extremely clear. In no case should it contain ambiguity or understatement. For example, if we are talking about rent reduction, it is important to indicate to what level:
“We ask you to reduce the level of rent until the situation stabilizes to 5 USD. per m2 per day.
If we are talking about the provision of services, then specify the request as much as possible, indicating the desired dates, price issue, etc.:
« To equip a pottery workshop, you need a kiln for firing ceramics - we ask you to help us in acquiring it. The cost of the furnace with the installation is 998 thousand rubles».
In this example, it is not entirely clear what kind of assistance is required from the addressee. Better to be more specific: "We ask you to help in purchasing a furnace for firing ceramics by transferring 333 thousand USD to the settlement account of the company for the production and installation of furnaces."
Whatever you ask for, the recipient must know exactly when, what, how much and at what price you want to receive. A generalized request is more at risk of rejection because the addressee does not always have the time and desire to deal with the details. In addition, you run the risk of not getting what you want by transferring the initiative to the addressee.
For example, private entrepreneurs wrote a letter asking for a rent reduction, but did not indicate to what level they want to reduce the rent:
“We ask you to reduce the level of rent until the situation stabilizes.”
As a result, they received a reduction in rent, but insignificant (by 1% of the existing one). Thus, their request was granted, but little changed in the position of the initiators of the letter.
In some cases, the text of the request can be made bold so that it stands out in the text, but do not abuse this technique.
Step 5. Summarize your request.
Repeat your request and emphasize what benefit the addressee will receive if the request is fulfilled. The request should be slightly modified. It is best to build a sentence according to the scheme: "If you fulfill the request, then you will be happy."
“If you go along with us and lower the rent for a while until the situation in the region stabilizes, you will not only be able to save more than 150 jobs, but also will not incur global losses due to the complete lack of rent.”
But there may be other options:
“You can be sure that every ruble of your charitable donations will go to a good cause and help children who find themselves in a difficult situation grow up to be worthy citizens.”
"You can be sure that every child's smile will give you moral satisfaction from your difficult work, and your efforts and efforts are an investment in worthy and happy citizens of the near future."
The main thing is to repeat the meaning of the request and the benefits of its implementation. The benefit does not have to be material. Remember that the addressee is a person, and feelings are not alien to him.
EXAMPLE:
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It was |
It became |
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“We kindly ask you, I.I. Ivanov, arrange a meeting of applicants with the chief manager of your company. We will be grateful for your assistance. With respect and gratitude, Employment center director P.P. Petrov" |
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“Dear Ivan Ivanovich! Your company has been participating in the Career Guidance Program for Applicants for several years now, helping them to choose a profession. You, as a personnel manager, are interested in training professionals, and we are ready to help schoolchildren to start preparing masters of their craft. To date, the profession of a manager is one of the most common, but many applicants do not have a clear idea of its meaning. In this regard, we ask you to organize a meeting of the general manager with applicants on March 23 at 15.00 at the base of your company. Having told the guys about the secrets of the profession today, you are laying the foundation for training real professionals tomorrow. Perhaps in a few years one of them will take your company to a new level of development. With respect and gratitude, Employment center director P.P. Petrov" |
And do not forget about the design of the letter - this is the "face" of the organization. If the initiator of the letter of request is an organization, then such a letter is drawn up on letterhead signed by the head or authorized person. If a private person, then it is enough to comply with the basic norms in the arrangement of the elements of the letter. These details are legally and psychologically very important for the addressee and the formation of the correct image of the sender.
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