[dctoedt]

> YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SEND LETTERS WITH 'USPS RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.' (It's the green card you get at the post office and once the recipient receives your letter, you will get a green card in the mail serving as proof of delivery and acceptance.)

Also: 1) Get the actual green-card form beforehand; 2) type the green-card serial number above the inside address of the letter; and 3) keep a photocopy. Otherwise the recipient could claim that the signed green card, confirming receipt of the mailing, was for some other letter, not the one you sent. As a baby lawyer filling in for a more-senior associate at a court hearing, I had an opposing counsel make just such a claim to a judge; the judge gave the opposing counsel the benefit of the doubt. (The opposing counsel was later disbarred for unrelated reasons.)

Example of such an inside address:

--begin--

   VIA CERTIFIED MAIL NO. 123456789

   Evil Corporation
   9876 Main Street
   Anytown, Anystate  54321-9876

   Attention: Department of Fobbing People Off

   To whom it may concern:

   [etc.]

--end--

[whitenoice]

Curious, can you not ask them to produce the other letter then? As they signed the green card.

[LurkersWillLurk]

Is the date that the green card was bought recorded by USPS? Basically, how exactly does writing the tracking number within the letter prove that the letter was mailed with that envelope?

[dredmorbius]

Under civil law in the United States, the legal burden is not "irrefutable proof", but "preponderance of evidence".

If you produce copies of a letter with a given return receipt number indicated on it, the return receipt stub, and the received receipt, and the opposing party claims that "this could have been faked", then, unless your credibility is otherwise impeached, you have established a preponderance of evidence for your claim.

[Stratoscope]

It sounds like several of you know more than I do about this, so I'm curious... I'm in the habit of using Priority Mail for things like this, because I can print out a mailing label at home and get a tracking number with delivery information.

Assuming I put the tracking number in the letter as you suggest, is there still an advantage to using certified mail and a green return receipt instead? Or is Priority Mail equally good?

[ams6110]

Priority Mail AFAIK doesn't require a signature for receipt. It does provide tracking, but that's less rigorous proof than the actual return receipt.

[Stratoscope]

Thanks. Priority Mail does have a signature-required option, which makes me curious whether that is as good as a return receipt.