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5 J. Ass'n Legal Writing Directors 32 (2008)
A Shot across the Bow: How to Write an Effective Demand Letter

handle is hein.journals/jalwd5 and id is 34 raw text is: A Shot Across the Bow: How to Write an Effective Demand Letter Bret Rappaport* Whether it is strikes or war, even the biggest battles in history have ended sitting down at a table. What is better - to be a boxing champion or a chess champion? 1prefer chess. I I. Introduction Often the bravado with which war is commenced ultimately proves costly, with an outcome uncertain and a goal illusive.2 In days of yore, to minimize the risks of a full-scale war, a wise ship captain who spotted a pirate ship on the horizon would order a shot across the bow - a well-aimed cannonball fired to create a small explosion in front of the opposing ship as a warning.3 The captain's decision, grounded in prudence, economics, good sportsmanship, and self-interest, would elicit a response. The ship on the receiving end of the shot could turn back, halt and raise a white flag, send out a scouting party to talk things over, or return fire and engage in battle. Unlike a shot in the hull, which most certainly would have led to a full-fledged fight, a shot across the bow at least gave the opposing ship's captain and crew options by which they could avoid a costly battle. Litigation is the civil dispute equivalent of war,4 and lke war it is costly, the * © Bret Rappaport 2008. Mr. Rappaport is an adjunct legal writing professor at DePaul University College of Law and a partner with the Chicago law firm of Hardt Stern & Kayne. Prof. Rappaport would like to thank Farzin Parang, a Northwestern Law School student, and David Eitel, a Marquette Law School student, for their assistance with this article. Prof. Rappaport would also like to thank DePaul University College of Law Associate Professor Susan Thrower for her unselfish assistance and unwavering encouragement of his writing and teaching, and Professor Michael R. Smith of University of Wyoming Law School for his invaluable assistance in editingand finalizing the article. Lech Walesa (quoted in Bob Woolf, Friend/y Persuasion 109 (Putnam Adult 1990)). 2 In Operation Iraqi Freedom, shock and awe in March 2003 and a declaration of Mission Accomplished two months later have proved by 2008 to be costly, with the outcome uncertain, and the goal of a free and democratic Iraq to be ever more elusive. See e.g. Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Militagy Adventure in Iraq (Penguin Press 2006); Bob Woodward, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (Simon & Schuster 2006). 3 See fire a shot across sb's/the bows, Cambridge Idioms Dictionay (2d ed., Cambridge U. Press 2006). The actual use of a shot across the bow is described in U.S. v. Officers of the U.SS. Mangrove, 188 U.S. 720, 721-22 (1903) and U.S. v. De La Rosa-Hernande., 157 Fed. Appx. 219, 220 (11 th Cir. 2005); the phrase is used metaphorically in Thomas v. Guardsmark, LLC, 487 F.3d 531,535 (7th Cit. 2007). 4 See Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Access to Justice and The Soceal Responsihii v of Lawyers: When

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