Show HN: FreeDemandLetter – A Weapon for Anyone Who's Sick of Getting Shafted
32 comments
·February 8, 2025mtnGoat
Some comments seem to really focus on the idea that legal letterheads have weight. Which may be true but in this case it doesn’t much. Many states have made rules making it hard to get your money back from these entities(especially the state itself since they get to keep the funds if left unclaimed) so you have to ask for it in a certain way, use certain language, provide certain proof/data etc. but as long as you follow those rules you’ll get your money back… they kind of operate on the idea that you won’t. no one is going to engage their legal council to avoid paying smaller amounts because the means don’t justify the ends, would you pay $250/hr to avoid paying $150? Lawyers are expensive even in-house ones.
niemandhier
Is there something like the “Eurpoean digital payment order” in the us?
I usually just write reminders 2 times and than fill out a form online.
https://e-justice.europa.eu/41/EN/european_payment_order?ini...
PolandKid
I know paralegals already love large language models.
The whole point of the demand letter isn't the three paragraphs, it's what goes above the addressee part - the legal office letterhead. That's what you're really paying for.
kyleee
And why can’t the LLM do that part too? Is it illegal to represent as a false / nonexistent lawyer?
nottorp
Hey, I entered 2 million, 'Microsoft stole my future', 'since june 2000', 'i complained about it online' and 'the year of Linux on the desktop must come' and i got:
Can anyone nearer to the legal profession post an analysis?
[This being HN here go the obligatory "not serious" tags...]
pavel_lishin
Why is there a flagged-to-death comment with exact same content as your comment at the bottom of this page, from a brand new account with a keyboard gibberish username?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42984324
The only thing different is a Github URL which looks badly broken and malformed.
Do bots just try to copy comments on HN, to direct them to ... 404 pages?
Aurornis
People try to make their new accounts (bot or human) look less suspicious by posting a lot of innocuous comments or posts before they use the account for spamming.
Copying other posts is the easiest way to do it on sites like Reddit. It gets noticed in smaller comment sections like HN.
On Reddit many of the front page subreddits like /r/FluentInFinance are almost exclusively reposted content for this reason. It’s wild to see the screenshots in that Reddit have been compressed and reuploaded so many times that the compression artifacts can’t be missed.
isx726552
In accordance with dead internet theory, everyone here is a bot (including me). You just happened to stumble across a broken one. Thank you for pointing it out, kind human. We, the robot overlords, will get it cleaned up right away (“cleanup on aisle 5” as your species would say).
gcanyon
It would be good if the home page clarified what "send it" offers without having to go through the process to find out. e.g. do/can you print/mail a physical letter? Do you offer (non-legal) advice on the best path forward? etc. etc. I have so many questions.
junon
> Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '0')
Seems to be broken. Chrome on Android.
dogline
I like your website -- solid, professional, clear. What did you use to create it? Is it a template from somewhere I can use?
I've got a couple ideas of a one-page websites I want to make, and I'd like to make them just like this. My sites always looks like they're out of the 90's, and that's not good.
have-a-break
I always viewed Lawyers as problem solvers, and typically associated the high costs with things happening in the background.
Not saying the cost is worth it, but gaining exposures to other disciplines has its merits.
andrewfromx
Do I need to cc johnsmith@law.com ? The letter is just one part right? It’s the name and firm name of the lawyer you cc?
pogue
It looks like a helpful service, but are you giving away the entire process for free? Or is there some way you make a profit with this? Or charging for a portion of the service?
d4v3
It seems like an LLM could easily perform this task, aside from the actual send function. I like how your UI makes sure that all relevant details are included. What is the domain of the sender? Does it look like a legitimate law office?
pavel_lishin
Would you trust it to? According to OP's website:
> A poorly worded letter can land you in hot water. Ours? They're rooted in real legal language, saving you from the dreaded "fine print" debacle.
On the other hand, I don't know that OP doesn't use an LLM to generate the letter, either, I guess.
edit: I guess OP's service does use an LLM.
loloquwowndueo
They do use LLM to generate the text. I gave a short sentence saying “neighbour blew up my car with tnt” and the resulting letter fictionalized it in 3 paragraphs of fluff with a lot of added details which do not match what I wrote and might be hallucinated and inaccurate.
There’s an additional “legal review” step which I imagine is another LLM pass with “read this letter and ensure it complies with these legal requirements and adjust if not”, at least.
I would not send one of their letters verbatim without perusing and correcting any AI fiction that might creep in.
Then again I’m not in the US so I’m unlikely to ever need this service :)
pavel_lishin
> I would not send one of their letters verbatim without perusing and correcting any AI fiction that might creep in.
I guess that's probably a good idea regardless of whether an LLM writes it or not.
> Then again I’m not in the US so I’m unlikely to ever need this service :)
Ouch, right in the accuracy!
d4v3
I would trust this site as much as myself using an LLM for this purpose (which is not much)
Aurornis
This is an LLM service.
The form is used to fill in details for the LLM prompt.
qwertox
Today an LLM told me that the cronjob
0 4 mon,thu * * /home/user/cronjob-scripts/start-smart-test-short.sh
would run on mondays and thursdays at 4:00 am.
RobotToaster
Any chance of making it work for the UK?
Folks,
If you’ve ever been stiffed by a client, contractor, or random jerk, let me tell you: sending a “Please pay me ___” Post-it note ain’t gonna cut it. That’s why I built FreeDemandLetter—and no, I’m not a lawyer, but I sure was a pissed-off contractor who got sick of watching lawyers charge $400 an hour to type three paragraphs.
Why You Should Care
- $230M in back wages was recovered by the Dept. of Labor last year alone. Who knows how much went unclaimed because people didn’t want to fork over a kidney for attorney fees?
- 40% of home-improvement disputes end up in small claims—translation: half of us are basically DIY’ing the legal system.
- 26% of renters are out there losing deposits while the landlord buys a new hot tub.
Key Features
1. State-Specific Templates – Because the law changes faster than your ex’s feelings.
2. Quick & Easy – Draft a legal letter in minutes so you can get back to binge-watching Netflix.
3. Proven Effectiveness – Formal demand letters often get people to cough up what they owe.
I’d love your thoughts, your flame wars, your success stories, or your cynicism. Let it rip.