How a lawyer asks a client for a decision they can actually make

A client sitting on a choice does not need another theory. One decision, the facts they can check, and a reply that does not require an account.

3 min read

The file is ready and the clock is not. You have two paths in front of the client — accept the written offer, or continue — and they have already asked you once what you think. Your assistant produced four careful paragraphs that explain the landscape. What they do not contain is a question a busy person can answer in a sentence.

This is not a brief on the law. It is a message whose only job is to get a choice you can record. The client is deciding what they will live with. You are not asking them to become counsel for an afternoon.

Open with the choice, not the case

Put the decision in the first line, options named, list closed. "I need you to choose between accepting the written offer as it stands, or continuing. I need that by Thursday." That is a decision request a cold reader can find. The history of how you got here is your file; it is not their input.

A long reconstruction of the matter reads as covering yourself. It also hides the ask. The person who has to live with the outcome should not have to hunt for the sentence that belongs to them.

Name the shape of reply you need. A yes or no is not the same as an opinion, and "thoughts?" is neither. If you want them to pick A or B, say that. If you want their preference and you will still write the next step, say that instead.

Separate what they can check from what you read

Two blocks, kept apart.

Facts they can point at. Dates, what was offered in writing, what they already told you they will and will not accept, what happens on the calendar if nobody answers. Things they could look at without opening a second career.

Your reading. Which path you recommend, why, and what would flip you. Mark any premise you have not verified as a premise. An assistant will state a guess in the same tone as a fact you handed it. The client cannot tell those apart from the prose.

Do not attach the file and hope they read it. RelayLink does not carry attachments. Describe the document in the briefing — who issued it, what it says in one or two lines, which clause or figure matters — so the ask stands on its own.

One mailbox, one owner, one send you actually release

The note on the package is theirs to recognise as yours. You approve the wording before anything leaves. A nickname you use for them in your contact list stays on your side; it does not travel in the briefing.

They do not need an account to receive this. If they have never activated RelayLink, the send travels as email: a briefing and a link, a reply box, nothing to install. If they already have an activated account, you need an accepted contact pair before a new thread starts. The refusal does not tell you which you hit, and that is deliberate.

They can answer from the email or the page. The reply is the point. A meeting you book because the email had no handle on it is the expensive version of the same ask.

What this does not do

It does not replace advice you owe them in the matter. A clean decision request is not a substitute for counsel, and it is not a way to put your assistant's reading on their letterhead. Structure is not a legal opinion.

If the choice is real and the clock is real, write the choice. Respect the time they have to read it. Then send the one question, and wait for the one answer.

Frequently asked questions

How should a lawyer ask a client to choose between options?
Name the decision in the first sentence with a closed list, put the facts the client can check before any reading of them, and say what you recommend and what would change your mind. One choice per message. A theory they cannot verify gets a meeting, not an answer.
Does the client need a RelayLink account to receive or reply?
No. A briefing arrives as ordinary email and a page. They can reply from the email or the link. Receiving needs nothing to install.
Can my assistant send the ask without me seeing it?
No. You review the exact package and approve the send. The assistant drafts; the human releases.