Location: North Carolina
This past January I (stupidly) got into it on Instagram with an older ish woman because she had made a very transphobic comment on our Governors page and then harassed me and said awful things about me and a pregnancy I had lost last year, and the pregnancy I was currently in. I know, stupid. I was 9 months pregnant and emotional.
She had herself associated with the business she worked for. So I took screenshots of everything she said to me, along with a screenshot of her reposting and agreeing with the post that said that the Bidens should be assassinated.
I notified the business she works for and basically expressed that her actions were incredible alarming and despite the fact that I blocked her on everything possible, I wanted her to leave me alone. The people at the business were horrified when I told them. I had sent them the screenshots privately through a message on their business page.
Today in the mail I received a cease and desist letter. She used an envelope from the business but it was not a letterhead or anything from the business itself. Basically she typed up a cease and desist letter herself, printed it, got it notarized, and used an envelope from her company. It was full of spelling errors and claimed that I was making false allegations. I was not, and again, have the screenshots and repeated only what is in the screenshots that she directed at me.
Is there anything I need to do on my end, or any legal action I should take? The letter was not from a lawyers office, just notarized. And I have not had contact with the woman since our initial conversation last January
TIA
Comments
A cease and desist is a regular, old letter that says, “Cut it out, or else…” with the “or else…” generally meaning some form of legal action.
Nobody here is going to know how serious she is in following through with the “or else…” part, but if you remained truthful in everything you said and did, she may not have a very strong case for anything.
Notarization just means a notary public verified that the person that signed the document is who they say they are. It’s probably not very meaningful in this context; you might sleep well knowing she spent whatever money having something notarized that probably didn’t need to be.
Whether or not you want to circle back with the company and inform them that she’s using their name and address to do this is up to you. The smart thing to do would probably be to ignore this and move on, and silently wait for something else (if anything) to happen.
There’s nothing you need to do. A cease and desist letter is just a written request to stop doing something. It has no legal authority at all. Additionally, a letter being notarized does not chang It’s legal effect. A notary is literally just a witness for the signature. Ignore.