A letter before action fits on one page, but it commits the client and reveals the file. Here is what to check or leave out before handing it to an AI, then how to get a clean letter ready to finish in Word.
The letter before action went out by recorded delivery on Monday. On Wednesday, the other side's lawyer replies in two lines: the statutory provision cited in the second paragraph does not say what the letter claims, and its numbering changed with the last reform. The draft came from a consumer AI tool and was skimmed on a hectic evening. And to get it, someone had pasted in the client's name, the amount claimed, the disputed clause and the email in which the client admitted his own delays.
Two mistakes in one, and a common pair: a file handed to a third party, and an invented reference signed without checking. A letter before action fits on one page, but it sets deadlines running and will later be put before the court. AI can draft it in a few minutes, provided you tick a few boxes first.
In Switzerland, under Article 102 of the Code of Obligations, the debtor of an obligation that has fallen due is placed in default by the creditor's demand; in a bilateral contract, a reasonable extra period often has to be granted before the creditor can draw the consequences. In England and Wales, the pre-action rules expect a letter before claim for most debt claims, and most other legal systems likewise tie the effects of default to a clear demand. Everywhere, the principle is the same: the letter must say clearly what is owed and by when. It generally starts default interest running and prepares the ground for legal action.
Preparing this letter means handling the whole file: the identity of the client and of the other party, the contract, the correspondence, the strategy. For a lawyer, all of this is covered by professional secrecy, protected in Switzerland by Article 13 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers and Article 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code, and by equivalent rules in most other countries. For an in-house lawyer or a debt recovery officer, it is personal data and business information that the company has never authorised to leave its hands.
The general list, valid for every profession: the data you should never paste into an AI.
In IA Confidential, create a "Legal" space for the file. It sets a formal tone, and your requests there are handled by the confidential models: open models installed on servers in Switzerland, under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), outside the reach of the CLOUD Act, which pass nothing on to third parties. In the space's Assistant tab, set your instructions once and for all: jurisdiction, the firm's closing formulas, a ban on inventing any reference. They take precedence over your general preferences.
Then attach the contract and the invoice to your message: they are read in your browser, and no file is kept on our servers. Then the request, with the facts to hand:
Draft a lawyer's letter before action, firm and courteous in tone, addressed to a client company that has not settled three invoices for IT services (amounts and dates in the attachments). Basis: clause 7 of the attached contract, which you quote word for word. Deadline: fifteen days from receipt. State that, failing settlement, our client will bring the matter before the competent court. Do not write any statutory reference: wherever one would be needed, put "[reference to check]". End with a list of the facts you took from the documents, each with the document it comes from.
That last instruction prevents the mistake from the opening story: anything not tied to a document stands out at once.
A good letter is reread through the eyes of the person receiving it. Ask for exactly that:
Reread this letter before action as the debtor's lawyer would. Which wordings are ambiguous, which assertions are not backed by any document, and what could be turned against our client? Do not change the text: list the points, from most to least serious.
AI can be wrong, and it can invent with confidence: a wrongly numbered article, case law that does not exist, a rounded amount. Every reference and every figure must be checked against your usual sources, and you are the one who signs.
The assistant writes the letter before action as a document: you see it in preview, edit it, keep its successive versions, then print it to PDF or export it to Word or OpenDocument. The layout is rebuilt on export, so do not expect to find your letterhead's layout. Copy the text into the firm's template, which keeps your letterhead and standard wording.
If you choose an external model for a general question, the Confidentiality filter first checks what is being sent, and only pseudonymised extracts of an attachment could go out. For a letter before action, nothing justifies leaving the confidential models.
In a Legal space, the file stays on the confidential models, processed on servers in Switzerland. Attachments are read in your browser, and nothing is kept on our side: your conversation history, drafts included, lives in your browser. We could not produce it if asked to, because we do not have it.
Nothing goes to an external model unless you choose it, and always after the Confidentiality filter: you decide between a confidential model, an anonymised version or sending it as is.
On a shared computer in a firm's front office, the history can be read by anyone using the same browser session: work in a personal session, and file the signed letter in the case folder rather than relying on the history.
For the general method, read the guide on AI for lawyers. A freelancer chasing your own clients? The guide on professional quotes shows how to get the document right upstream, so you have fewer letters before action to write.
To try it on a fictitious case before your next real letter: open the chat.
