Someone needs to stop. Here is how a letter makes that happen.

NY CPLR § 215(3) · CIVIL RIGHTS LAW §§ 50–51 · CIVIL RIGHTS LAW § 76-a

What a cease and desist letter is, and what it is not.

A cease and desist letter is a demand. It tells a specific person or business that they are doing something unlawful, identifies the law they are violating, demands that they stop by a date, and states what will happen if they do not. When it comes from a lawyer, it also communicates something the words never say out loud: a New York attorney has looked at the facts and is prepared to file.

It is not a court order. Nobody is required to obey it. The police will not enforce it. If the recipient ignores it, nothing happens automatically. What the letter does is change the recipient's math. Before the letter, the false review or the midnight texts cost them nothing. After the letter, continuing means doing it with written notice that a lawsuit is coming and that their conduct after the date on the letter was knowing and deliberate. For most people, that is enough.

Because the letter has no force of its own, its power comes entirely from the claim behind it. A letter that threatens a lawsuit you could not actually win is a bluff, and experienced recipients and their lawyers know it. Everything below is about whether you have a claim worth writing about.

Use one: defamation.

Defamation in New York is a false statement of fact about you, communicated to at least one other person, made with at least negligence, that causes harm to your reputation. Written defamation is libel; spoken is slander. Online posts, reviews, emails, and group texts are treated as written.

Every word of that definition matters. The statement has to be false, and you have to be able to say specifically what is false about it. It has to be a statement of fact, not opinion. And it has to be about you, identifiably. A post saying "this contractor is a crook who stole my deposit" is a factual claim that can be proven true or false. A post saying "this contractor was rude and I would not hire him again" is opinion, and no letter will change that.

Certain categories of false statement are treated as defamation per se, meaning New York law presumes they cause harm and you do not have to prove specific financial loss. Those categories are: accusing someone of a serious crime; statements that injure a person in their trade, business, or profession; claiming someone has a loathsome disease; and imputing unchastity to a woman. Most business-review and ex-partner defamation lands in the first two.

The deadline is short. New York gives you one year from publication to sue for libel or slander, under CPLR § 215(3). That is one of the shortest limitations periods in the state, and it runs from the first publication, not from when you discovered the post. Our spokes on fake online reviews and someone spreading lies about you go deeper on each side of this.

Use two: harassment and unwanted contact.

The second common use is a person who will not stop contacting you. An ex who sends forty texts a night, a former client who emails your boss, a neighbor who films you every time you leave the building, a former friend who has moved from your phone to your family's. The letter here is a no-contact demand: it documents the pattern, states that all contact is unwelcome, demands that it stop, and identifies the civil and criminal exposure that continuing creates.

The civil side of harassment in New York is less of a single claim and more of a cluster: intentional infliction of emotional distress, private nuisance, trespass, and, where the contact includes false statements, defamation. Each has elements and none is automatic. What the letter reliably does is establish notice. After the letter, the recipient cannot say they did not know the contact was unwanted, and every message after the date on the letter is evidence that it was deliberate.

There is a line where this stops being a civil matter. When the contact includes threats of physical harm, when it rises to stalking, or when the person is a current or former intimate partner or family member, the tools that actually protect you are an order of protection from Family Court or Criminal Court and a police report. An order of protection is a court order that the police will enforce on the spot. A lawyer's letter is not, and we will tell you plainly when you need the order instead of the letter. Read harassment cease and desist letters in New York for where that line sits, and neighbor harassment for the building-specific version.

Use three: your name, face, or voice in someone's advertising.

New York has a statute for this one. Civil Rights Law §§ 50 and 51 prohibit using a living person's name, portrait, picture, or voice for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without that person's written consent. Section 50 makes it a misdemeanor. Section 51 gives the person a civil action for an injunction and damages, with additional exemplary damages available where the use was knowing.

The classic cases: a salon that keeps a former stylist's photo on its website and Instagram for a year after she quit; a brand that reposts an influencer's photo in a paid ad without a deal; a gym that uses a member's before-and-after pictures on a billboard; a company that puts a fabricated testimonial under a real customer's name. In each of those, the use is commercial, the consent was never written, and the statute applies.

It does not apply to everything. News reporting, commentary, and other editorial uses on matters of public interest are outside the statute even when the publisher profits from them. Incidental uses are generally not actionable. The limitations period here is also one year, under CPLR § 215(3). The full treatment is on a business used my photo without permission.

What not to send a cease and desist letter about.

This is the section most people skip and the one that matters most. We decline to send letters in these situations, and you should be skeptical of anyone who will not.

• Opinions. "Worst restaurant in Brooklyn." "I think he is dishonest." "Two stars." Opinion is protected, and a letter demanding that someone retract an opinion announces that you do not understand the law.
• True statements. Truth is a complete defense to defamation. If the review says you were two hours late and you were two hours late, there is no claim, however unfair the tone.
• Speech on public matters, because of anti-SLAPP exposure. New York's anti-SLAPP law, Civil Rights Law § 76-a, applies to claims based on communication in a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest, and "public interest" is construed broadly. If you sue over that kind of speech, you have to meet a higher standard of fault, the court can dismiss the case early, and you can be ordered to pay the defendant's attorney's fees. A letter threatening a lawsuit you could be sanctioned for bringing is not leverage. It is an exhibit in their fee motion.
• Things you cannot prove. If the statement is false but you have no way to show it, the letter is a bluff.
• Situations where attention is the real harm. An aggressive letter to someone who enjoys a fight can turn a post with twelve views into a screenshot with twelve thousand. We talk about this frankly on the spokes.

Tone, delivery, and what happens next.

A good cease and desist letter is written knowing that it may be read by a judge, posted online by the recipient, or both. That rules out insults, exaggeration, and threats the law does not support. It rules in specificity: the exact statements, the exact dates, the exact URLs, the exact law, and the exact demand.

Our letters follow one structure. They identify who we represent and what the recipient did, with quotes and dates. They state the legal claim, in one paragraph, with the statute where one applies. They make the demand: stop, take it down, retract, preserve evidence, do not contact, whichever applies. They set a deadline, usually seven to fourteen days. And they state the consequence honestly: that we are prepared to pursue the claims identified, not that the recipient will "face the full extent of the law."

Send it in a way you can prove. Email plus certified mail with return receipt is standard. For a business, send it to the registered address and to the person actually responsible. For an individual, their home address and the email or platform they use to contact you. If the recipient is anonymous, the first step is often a platform report or a demand on the platform to preserve records, and identifying the poster may require a court's help before any letter can be addressed to them.

Three things happen after a letter goes out. Most often, the conduct stops, quietly, with no reply at all, and that is a win. Sometimes the recipient or their lawyer responds, and a negotiation starts: a retraction in exchange for a release, a takedown with a mutual no-contact agreement, a payment for the unauthorized use. Occasionally the recipient ignores it or escalates, and you decide whether to file. The letter has still done its job in that case, because the record of notice and refusal is now part of your claim.

What a cease and desist letter does here.

Across all three uses, the letter does the same four things. It documents, so that the pattern of posts or messages is captured in one dated record. It gives notice, so that the recipient can never again claim they did not know. It states the claim, which forces the recipient to evaluate their own exposure, often for the first time. And it sets a deadline, which converts an open-ended problem into a decision the recipient has to make by a date.

It does not get money by itself, it does not force a takedown by itself, and it does not protect you from someone who is dangerous. Where a lawsuit is the real next step, the comparison on demand letter vs. small claims in New York applies to the money side; note that small claims courts cannot order someone to stop doing something, so injunctive relief means Supreme Court. Our flat-fee demand letters page explains how we prepare and send these.

Read next.

• Harassment cease and desist letter in New York: unwanted texts, calls, and contact with your family or employer, and where the police and Family Court take over.
• Neighbor harassment cease and desist: noise, threats, cameras aimed at your door, false 311 complaints, and getting the board or management to act.
• Fake online reviews and defamation: for business owners hit by reviews from people who were never customers.
• Someone is spreading lies about me: for individuals dealing with an ex, a coworker, or a community post.
• A business used my photo without permission: Civil Rights Law §§ 50–51 and the takedown-plus-compensation demand.
• Flat-fee demand letters: how the service works.

The letters, the template, and the guides

Everything on this page hands off to the flat-fee side of the practice at DemandLetterNY, where the letters are priced on the page and screened before you pay. Start with the one that matches your problem: the defamation cease and desist letter for false statements of fact, the harassment cease and desist for unwanted contact, and the stolen photos and image misuse letter for your face or name in someone else's advertising. The cease and desist hub compares all three.

If you would rather start yourself, there is a free cease and desist letter template with an annotated example. For the law underneath: defamation of character in New York, slander vs. libel, online defamation, and letter vs. order vs. restraining order. If you are the one who received a letter, read how to respond to a cease and desist letter before you do anything.