Almost immediately following the unfortunate reality of a
termination of employment, another unfortunate reality almost
always arrives: a "without prejudice" demand letter.
Indeed, that demand letter is perhaps the second "without
prejudice" correspondence involved in a termination, the first
being (or, more correctly, attached to) the letter of termination
itself. But what exactly does the phrase "without
prejudice" mean? Why is it part of termination or demand
letters? Is using these magic words actually beneficial? And if so,
does the failure to explicitly state them render them
powerless?
There is unfortunately widespread confusion about without
prejudice correspondence despite the concept behind the designation
being based on sound policy and the realities of dispute resolution
in a mature world. This confusion has resulted in both gross
overuse of the term (one co-writer of this article recently
received an email which read, "Without Prejudice: please
