Certified Mail Legal Issues Explained

What is Certified Mail, Anyway?

The prominent definition of certified mail in practical use is that it is a mailing method within the United States Postal Service which has more formal tracking and receipt features than regular mail. Among these features is that certified mail allows you to identify the date which the mail was given to the USPS, plus it records the mailing route which the mail followed. These features enable the use of certified mail to create proof-of-mailing in the event it becomes needed. Certified mail will also allow someone to identify who signed for a certified mail letter, and at what date and time. This signature is contained within the physical mailing envelope which is delivered back to the mailer or sender of the certified mail.
There may be several other mailers who also sent certified mail on the same day as you, plus the post office may apply a post mark plus a certified mailing label. So the uniform appearance of a certified mail envelope is not sufficient to prove who actually sent the certified mail , or exactly when the certified mail was mailed. However, certified mail provides various tracking information from which someone can later attempt to ascertain the origin of the certified mail, plus the date upon which it could be determined to have been mailed.
Certified mail is generally used when someone wants to be able to prove the date on which a letter was sent, plus also show the location where it was sent from, also the USPS mailing route to that destination, plus the date and signature from the person who received the certified mail. Because certified mail will allow someone to try to have a near-identical copy of a document you previously sent via regular mail, it is thus sometimes used to have a verified copy of admission of receipt for a letter, such as for a contract, plus the ability to prove the contents of the letter, plus also the time period when all of this happened.

Certified Mail as a Legal Tool

When it comes to sending formal notices and other correspondence, the law places great importance on how a recipient is made aware of this correspondence. Certain legal situations require the sender to provide proof that a notice was both mailed, and delivered. The only way to provide this sort of proof is through certified mail. That is why using certified mail is a very important step to take for any business who wishes to mitigate their risks.
Suppose you need to terminate a vendor agreement. In the agreement is a clause that requires you to provide written notice of your intention to terminate in order to avoid liability for breach of contract. Let’s also say that you, as the party wishing to terminate, inform the other party of your intentions via email. Later, the other party claims they did not receive this email and wants payment for breach of contract. Who is the court going to side with?
Had you sent a certified letter to the other party, you would have proof that you indeed sent the letter yourself, and that the other party received the letter. It would prevent both the liability of the breach of contract, and the headache of explaining to a judge that you did, in fact, notify them.
A certified mail receipt is a legal document that provides proof that you, in fact, sent a letter and/or certain other documents. A signature is required for delivery, like with a regular signature-required mail. And unlike a regular letter, the United States Postal Service is required to keep the records for proof of mailing and delivery for what is essentially perpetuity.
For situations that require proof of delivery, certified mail is standard practice in the industry. For a business sending a letter or notice to a customer or another business, certified mail is a way to send something officially, so there are no disputes of whether or not the person received the letter. If the customer does not make a payment, the company can have a paper trail of notifications to show that they made every effort to inform the client, and thus the client is liable.

Common Legal Problems with Certified Mail

The most common legal issues involving certified mail occur either because of a misunderstanding of terms or because of a lost piece of certified mail. When certified mail is lost, the recipient may dispute whether or not the document was properly served. Alternatively, litigants may argue over whether a subsequent document was served properly by certified mail or regular mail when no receipt has been obtained for it.
Some other common legal issues involving certified mail have to do with disputes over what kind of mail is being sent. For example, some people argue that "certified" and "registered" mail are interchangeable; this can cause problems for those who sent registered mail who may have intended to send certified mail (with return receipt requested) instead. Sometimes, litigants will argue that "certified" mail includes mail sent by e-mail or facsimile, although most lawyers agree that certified mail refers only to types of mail that are sent by conventional means.
There is no common law definition of certified mail. It is offered in different ways by different postal services. While the United States Postal Service (USPS) offers it as a type of registered mail that includes a certificate to prove the fact of delivery, other services such as UPS and FedEx, offer something that is similar but which is not identical to the USPS version of certified mail. The most common use of certified mail in the United States courts is in complying with the requirements of Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Certified Mail vs. Registered Mail

There are instances when you need to use certified mail or even express certified mail and that’s perfectly ok because they’re simply alternative methods of sending mail. If you’re not concerned about whether the parties to whom you’re sending notices actually receive them, it may be just fine to send them regular first class mail (or maybe "bulk mail" if you’re sending lot’s of them).
If, however, you’re sending notices to the IRS or other Federal Agencies, certified mail is the ONLY way to go, especially if you’re sending "certified" notices. If you’re dealing with a tax problem, make sure the IRS gets your correspondence! The most important aspect of IRS mailing requirements is not failure to send certified mail, but failure to get it there in time (a bald faced lie to the contrary notwithstanding). So use certified mail.
The most important distinction in certified mail vs. registered mail, however, is that certified mail is limited to the type of domestic mail that allows for a mailer receipt with tracking, and only when a signature is requested . In contrast, registered mail extends far beyond the bounds of certified mail. For instance, express mail service can be registered (though many believe that to be a needless complication and extra cost). Registered mail applies to "any mailing of either first class mail or other mail … for which registration service, identical to certified mail service, is requested …." So it will include any first-class mail or any other mail for which a company requests registration. It can even apply to mail that is deemed to be for the "use of the sender …." This can get a bit confusing, but is extremely important in the context of a tax dispute. The bottom line is that the classification of registered mail goes far beyond the limited scope of certified mail.
The primary cost issue is that registered mail actually comes with a sort of insurance, and you have to pay an insurance premium for that. Furthermore, registered mail must be sent at least first-class mail. Conversely, certified mail does not have to be sent first class.

Legal Uses of Certified Mail

There are many pitfalls associated with using certified mail in legal matters, so it is very important that you use certified mail properly. As noted above, just sending a letter via certified mail does not necessarily constitute notice. To have proper notice of something, a party has to actually receive it.
Legal cases using certified mail generally involve an argument about when, not whether, the document in question was received. The best way to avoid this argument is to make sure that you receive confirmation of delivery and save it in your records. Problems usually arise when proof does not exist or when the proof is lacking information that the law requires to show proper notice was given.
The most common example of this is the failure to have signature confirmation. There are some situations where simply sending something via certified mail is not enough. In some places, signature confirmation is mandatory for something to be considered served by certified mail. Without a signature, you can’t prove it makes it to the right party.
Other pitfalls include using information that is old or not correct. If you are sending a certified letter to a person’s last known address, that will not suffice if the person did not receive it because the address is wrong. If the certified mail is going to a law firm, only individuals identified as partners are deemed to have notice. Just sending it to "Smith Consulting" or "Smith and Associates" might not be enough to put the party on notice that the certified letter was sent, and that is a problem.
If you want to ensure that you sent your important documents by certified mail and you have shown that the other side has proper notice under the law, it can be worth it to go through the process of having a private process server prepare an affidavit. This will be especially true if you know that the other side will argue about notice or has previously done so.
Best practices when using certified mail for legal purposes also involve a little more effort than just merely mailing it off. First, try to get signature confirmation. This is relatively inexpensive. In some places, you may need to send certified mail with signature confirmation to show that the recipient had proper notice. This confirmation works because it shows not only that it made it to the person signed for it, but that the person signed at the right place on the form and within a certain amount of time. (A certification from the post office that says that they attempted delivery and that there was nobody there to sign for it and that nobody came to pick it up after some amount of time is generally not sufficient.)
Next, make sure that the people who are supposed to be served are actually the ones that are served. If the same person who mails it doesn’t live at the same address as the party that is being sued, and that’s not the party’s last known address, that creates a problem.
Third, we recommend that you use all the contact information available to serve the party – but don’t do it in the same day. So if a person has multiple email addresses, text messages, phone numbers, and other ways of being reached, use them for communication about the case but not at the same time. So if you’ve sent an e-mail from one e-mail address to the person, wait a few days and then send a text message or a second email. That way, you won’t send two notices at the same time and still get to the same place. That way, you can still believe you’ve done everything possible to give a party notice of something.
When it comes to important issues such as notice of a lawsuit, you want to do everything you can to make sure that the job gets done. Using certified mail properly can help you to do that.

Case Studies Utilizing Certified Mail

Meyer v. First Franklin Mortgage (2009) involved the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the residents of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Residents attempted to send three separate documents via certified mail and sought to prove sufficient notice of cancellation of their insurance policy. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that, "First Franklin failed to prove the mailing requirement [of La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 22:647(A)(1),] because it did not produce evidence of the approved certificate or register of mailing."
Goodin v. Thousand Trails Inc. (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015) involved the Pennsylvania Superior Court and a couple’s claim against Thousand Trails for withholding money from their $17,000 security deposit. During the case, the couple sent Thousand Trails multiple written and certified notices of their intention to seek legal counsel if they did not receive their deposit back. Thousand Trails failed to claim several notices within thirty days of the date they were mailed, and a jury subsequently ruled in the couple’s favor. After the decision, the defendant filed a post-trial motion claiming the certified mailings did not provide the claimant with reasonable notice, and thus were not legally binding . However, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that the defendant was indeed notified and had plenty of time to respond to the plaintiff’s claims.
City of Fayetteville v. Mun. Waste Revolving Fund, LLC (Ark. 2014) involved the Supreme Court of Arkansas after former waste disposal company Municipal Waste Revolving Fund, LLC won a ten-year contract to manage a recycling program. The City of Fayetteville issued a public statement declaring recycling for all citizens and businesses would be free of charge. Later, the city hired a third-party consultant, who recommended dropping the city-wide recycling service and charging for it instead. City officials notified citizens via a letter sent by certified mail of this new change to the recycling program. Citizens then filed a lawsuit, claiming the decision to discontinue the city-wide recycling program without going through their contractually obligated collective bargaining process was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Arkansas held that the letter sent via certified mail was not sufficient enough to notify the citizens, and thus ruled against the city for terminating a program without sufficient notice.