Client letters

Client letters go to the people on your Clients list — not to crash prospects. Firms use them for a thank-you after a case settles (a good moment to ask for a referral), a New Year’s letter, or news like a new practice area. Nothing ever mails before you approve it. When letters are due, we make a list, email you, and wait. You check the list, untick anyone you like, and approve.

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How it works, start to finish

1. You set up a client letter once: when it goes out, which template, and who mails it.
2. On the morning letters are due, we put together a batch: the clients who should get the letter that day.
3. We email you: “3 client letters are waiting for your approval.” The email links straight to each batch.
4. You open the batch, check the names, untick anyone who shouldn’t get it, and click Approve and mail.
5. The letters are printed and mailed. The batch moves to History, where you can see how many were mailed.

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Set up a client letter

1. Go to Marketing → Client letters and click New client letter.
2. Name it, for example “Settlement thank-you”. You’ll see this name in emails and in History.
3. Pick when it’s sent:
   • After a case settles — a set number of days (0 to 365) after the Date settled on the client’s record. For example, 30 days.
   • Every year on a date — pick a month and day, such as January 2. If you pick the 29th, 30th or 31st, shorter months use their last day.
   • Once, on a date — pick the day.
4. Only these case types (optional) — leave it blank to include every client, or list case types separated by commas, such as “Motor vehicle accident, Slip and fall”. They must match the Case type on the client’s record.
5. Letter template — pick a published letter template. If you don’t have one, upload one under Marketing → Templates first.
6. Mailed by — who prints and mails the letters. See Who mails client letters below.
7. Return address — starts with your address on file. Change it if this letter should come from somewhere else.
8. Phone and Website on the letter (optional) — printed on the letter if your template uses them.
9. Click Create.

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Who mails client letters

• LetterFriend — your own LetterFriend account prints and mails the letters, and LetterFriend bills you. Save your LetterFriend API key under Settings → Integrations first. Until you do, this choice is greyed out.
• Mailed by OutboundLegal — we print and mail the letters for you from your prepaid mail balance. This is coming soon; it appears here once it’s turned on for your account. Email us if you’d like to be told when it’s ready.

See Mailing options for more on each.

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The daily email

Each morning, if any batch is waiting, we send one email listing them: the client letter’s name and how many letters, with a link to each batch. It goes to the account owner, with your default Campaign managers (set on Marketing → Campaigns) copied. The same batches are listed at the top of Marketing → Client letters, under Waiting for your approval.

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Review and approve a batch

1. Open the batch from the email, or click Review next to it under Waiting for your approval.
2. Check the list. Each row shows the client’s name, case type and settled date.
3. Untick anyone who shouldn’t get this letter.
4. Click Approve and mail. We ask you to confirm: approving sends real mail, mailing costs apply, and you can’t undo it once it’s on its way.

Only the people still ticked are mailed. Don’t want this batch at all? Click Decline this batch. Nobody on the list gets this letter for this event, and the batch won’t come back the next day. Didn’t get to it? A batch nobody approves within 30 days of its due date expires, as if you’d declined it. A Thanksgiving letter won’t go out in March.

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Stop a mailing

After you approve, the batch shows Approved — mailing soon for a short time. Until mailing starts, you can open it and click Stop this mailing. Once it shows Mailing or Mailed, it can’t be stopped.

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History

Marketing → Client letters → History lists recent batches with their date and status: Click any batch to see who was on it.

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Who never gets a letter

These clients are left out automatically, even if you approved the batch:

• Clients marked Do not mail — including anyone you mark after the batch was made.
• Clients without a full mailing address (street, city, state and ZIP) at the time of mailing.
• Clients you’ve deleted.
• Clients whose case type doesn’t match, if the letter is limited to certain case types.
• Anyone who already got this letter for the same event. A client gets one settlement thank-you per settlement, and one yearly letter per year. This holds even if you delete a client and import them again.
• Clients whose settled date you corrected. If you mark a change as a correction, they don’t get a second thank-you. If you mark it as a new settlement, they can. See When a settled date changes.

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Pause or delete a client letter

On Marketing → Client letters, under Your client letters:

• Pause: switch it Off. No new batches are made while it’s off. Switch it On to start again. The list shows the date of the next batch for yearly and one-time letters.
• Delete: click the delete button and confirm. No more batches are made, and any batch waiting for approval is declined. Letters already mailed stay in History.