Dear Employees:
I want to let you in on a little secret. Cease and Desist letters are often written simply to scare you into submission by employers. They are not always written by lawyers and often times, your employer has no plan on actually suing you.
How do I know this?
Because people end up on our blog and website every week with the following search query: “Sample threatening letter to send to employee,” or “free cease and desist letter from employer to scare employee.”
You get my drift.
Yes, someone sending that kind of letter has the intention of scaring you into submission. It is not however, a court order. It does not have any additional importance or force than any other letter – it is simply a letter.
The letter you receive from an employer has no more legal force than if I were to send Tiger Woods a letter telling him to man up and admit his faults, or else.
Or else what? Well, they can always file suit if you have breached an agreement and have no legal duty to warn you.
I told a client this week that whether he chose to ignore the cease and desist letter was up to him. Yes, if it got to litigation they could use the letter to prove my client breached his agreement knowingly – but most of the time these letters are not used later because most of my clients will admit they knew they were breaching an agreement.
So – what do you do when you get such a letter? Call an attorney and discuss your rights, options etc.