How to Write a Legal Inter Office Memorandum for Your Employer

When I was a paralegal student in the 1990s one of my legal research writing assignments was to write several inter office memorandums. Writing an inter office memorandum is quite easy as it's main purpose is to remind or inform your employer what case or project you are working on and where you are in this assignment. An inter office memorandum is an important part of running a law office or law practice as it keeps the lines of communication open between you and your employer in case you are not in the office one day.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer
• Word processing software
• Reason for writing the memo
• Case law for the memo

Writing an Inter Office Legal Memorandum

1. Write your inter office memorandum with your office's word processing software on a computer. An inter office memorandum has several elements of importance that need to be addressed and given to your employer.
2. The elements of writing an inter office memorandum are as follows:
   The Heading, which will include To: (who it will be addressing), From: (the memorandum will be written by you), Date: (date in which the memorandum is written), RE: (what this memorandum is in regards to) and finally the Office File#: (whatever file number you are writing this memorandum about).
3. With the heading points taken care of, move on to the body of your memorandum. The body of your legal memorandum should include the following headings: ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL ISSUES, FACTS, ANALYSIS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
4. ASSIGNMENT: The assignment would be you telling your employer why you are writing this memorandum. What this memorandum is about in a nutshell. Maybe your employer has asked you to research statutes and case law pertinent to the legal issues of attorney's fees, costs and sanctions. This is what would be written in under the ASSIGNMENT HEADING.
5. LEGAL ISSUES: Since this memorandum is about attorney costs, fees and sanctions, this is all you would write under the LEGAL ISSUES heading. If you think more needs to be read under this heading, then by all means, add more. It is better to keep it short and to the point though.
6. FACTS 1: To state the cases your employer gave you to research in the memorandum, you have to use the law library and research case law on the open cases under COSTS, FEES AND SANCTIONS.
7. FACTS 2: Mackey v. Mackey: POST JUDGMENT, CHILD & SPOUSAL SUPPORT
   
   Representing the husband. Husband coming in for a downward modification of child and spousal support. Husband is recently disabled due to a serious on the job accident. Husband's gross income monthly has dropped from $2,500 to $800. Wife has landed a part in a movie where she will be making $8,000 gross, a month.
   
   We want to recover fees from wife. At the time of the last order (four years ago), husband was making $6,000 a month gross and wife was making $1,200.
8. FACTS 3: Zubi v. Zubi: POST JUDGMENT PROCEEDINGS AND ABILITY TO PAY
   
   Representing the wife. Post judgment proceeding. Wife bringing motion to modify child and spousal support upward. According to wife husband makes over $8,000 cash, a month. We can't find it. We have sent subpoenas, taken depos and used investigators. Husbands home is not in his name. Husband's car, a brand-new Mercedes, is in his name. Husband still owes us fees from prior proceedings, where the court ordered him to pay He has not. We cannot garnish his wages because he operates on a cash basis only. He never puts money in a bank.
   
   Husband has a small amount of money in a CD account which has always been his separate property, can the court order him to hand it over? Also, he has a separate property IRA, an the court order him to liquidate it?
9. ANALYSIS 1:
   PAUL V PAUL: The statutes that will be required are as follows: 128.5 of the California Code of Civil Procedure dealing with the payment of expenses attributable to bad faith action of frivolous or delaying tactics; Assessment of punitive damages and 4370 of the California Code dealing with order to award attorney fees.
   
   * Every trial court may order a party, the party's attorney, or both to pay any reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, incurred by another party as a result of bad-faith actions or tactics that are frivolous or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay.
   
   If the court determines that accusation of child abuse or neglect made during a child custody proceeding under this title was false and the person making the accusation knew it to be false at the time the accusation was made, the court may impose reasonable money sanctions, not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000) and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in recovering the sanctions, against the person making the accusation.
   
   * Sanctions: May be assessed for pressing an appeal that is "frivolous" or "taken solely for delay." A frivolous or dilatory appeal may also warrant sanctions under CC §4370.6 for violating the public policy to promote settlement and reduce litigation costs. (Marriage of Green (1989) 213 C.A. 3d 14, 261 C.R. 294).
   
   CRC Rule 26(a) provides that the reviewing court may impose upon offending attorney or parties such penalties, including the with holding or imposing of costs, as the circumstances of the case and the discouragement of similar future conduct.
   
   In Re Marriage of Flaherty, (1982) 31 Cal. 3d 637, 183 Cal. Rptr. 508, 646 P2d 179, discussing sanctions for prosecution of frivolous appeals in family law proceedings, and stating that an appeal should be held to be frivolous only when it is persecuted for an improper, motive as, for example, to harass the respondent, to delay the effect of an adverse judgment, or when it indisputably has no merit, as when any reasonable attorney would argue that the appeal is totally and completely without merit.
   
   In Re Marriage of Sullivan
10. ANALYSIS 2:
    MACKEY V MACKEY: The statutes that will be required are as follows: West' s Ann. Code §4370. This states that fees awardable on appeal from a family law judgment for services performed and costs incurred in connection with the appeal and West' s Ann. Cal. Civ. Code § 4801(a) stating that before motion for upward modification of spousal support can be considered, moving party must prove that prior order, when made, was sufficient to meet his or her reasonable needs as measured by applicable statutory guidelines, or that reasonable costs of satisfying those needs has increased; after such showing, moving party must then prove obligor' s ability to pay increased spousal support.
    
    * Where the appellant is found to have violated the CC to promote settlement and reduce litigation costs, fees on appeal may also be awarded "in the nature of a sanction" (Marriage of Green (1989) 213 C.A. 3d 1, 261 C.R. 294-both "need based" and sanction-type fees awarded on appeal.
    
    
    * POST JUDGMENT: A final judgment of dissolution is res judicata to the need for an attorney fee award pertaining to matters disposed of by that judgment.
    
    * ABILITY TO PAY: Section 128.5 are imposed as "fines" for proscribed litigation conduct. As such, they serve a purpose altogether different from "ne based" FLA fee awards (pursuant to CC § §4370.5) and, thus, are not a reflection of the parties' relative circumstances."
    
    * CHILD & SPOUSAL: In any proceeding involving modification of child SUPPORT custody and support, the courts must adopt the course that is for the child's best interest, and modification should only occur on the affirmative showing of a change in circumstances. West' s Ann. Code. Civ. Pro. §1689.
    
    
    * SANCTIONS: The amount of sanctions imposed under §128.5 is left to the trial court' s broad discretion. (McFarland v. City of Sausalito (1990) 218 C.A. 3d. 909, 267 C.R. 412) Appellate courts will defer to the trial court' s decision in this regard absent a showing of abuse of discretion.
11. The final part of your inter office memorandum is your CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS if you were to offer any.

Tips & Warnings

• The law library is your friend and you need to use it wisely.
• If you need help, always ask.
• If you have access to Lexus-Nexus in your employer's office, use this as well.
• Make sure you have more than one case to compare to when stating your case to your employer, because you are your employer's eyes and ears to this her/his open cases.