You Got a Demand Letter (No Suit Yet): How to Respond

A demand letter from a signal-piracy enforcer is a real, lawful claim, and it is also not something you have to resolve today. Between "ignore it" and "call them to apologize and settle" is a short sequence that protects you, and the order matters far more than the speed. Before any of it, one question decides everything else: is this a letter, or have you already been served with a lawsuit?

What You Need to Know

• First, classify the document. A pre-suit demand letter and a filed lawsuit are different situations. If what you are holding is a summons and complaint, stop here and go to served with a federal lawsuit, because a court clock is already running and this page's pre-suit steps do not apply.
• For a pre-suit letter, the two most damaging first moves are calling the sender to "explain," and paying or promising to pay before you have notified your insurer. Both can be hard to undo.
• The demand's "deadline" is usually the sender's requested response date, not a court deadline. It creates pressure, not a legal clock. Silence does not stop them from filing later, though, so the answer is to respond deliberately, not to ignore it.
• The $110,000 in the letter is a statutory ceiling under 47 U.S.C. §605, not your bill. What these claims actually resolve for is on what venues actually pay.
• Do not delete anything. Records that "look bad" still have to be preserved; destroying them creates a separate and worse problem.

Step 0: Is This a Letter, or Have You Been Served?

This is the question that decides which page you should be on. A pre-suit demand letter asks you to pay to resolve a claim before any lawsuit. A summons and complaint is a filed federal lawsuit: it has a court name at the top, a case number, and a stated deadline to respond. A "notice of a lawsuit and request to waive service," or papers handed over by a process server, also mean a case has been filed.

If any of that describes what you have, this page's pre-suit procedure is the wrong tool. Go to served with a federal lawsuit and retain a lawyer now, because a missed court deadline can produce a default judgment. And if papers arrive later, after you have started dealing with a letter, stop and re-run this check immediately: the moment it is a filed case, the pre-suit playbook ends.

Everything below assumes you are holding a pre-suit demand letter, with no lawsuit filed.

Two Reflexes to Stop Before You Do Anything

Most of the self-inflicted damage in the first hour comes from two instincts:

• The urge to call and explain. Getting the sender on the phone to say it was one fight, that an employee did it, that you did not know, or that it was a small crowd feels like defusing the situation. It usually does the opposite: an unprepared account becomes the other side's evidence about the event, the crowd, the signal, and your knowledge. You do not have to get on that call today, and you should not.
• The urge to settle it quietly. Paying or agreeing to pay before you have told your insurer can forfeit coverage you might have had. Many business policies require prompt notice and prohibit voluntary payments made without the insurer's consent, and those conditions can bind even when it is unclear whether the claim is covered. That makes the first call that matters a call to your insurer or broker, not to the claimant.

The Pre-Suit Response Sequence

Work these in order. Each step is something you can do without a lawyer, though a lawyer helps at any point.

Step 1: Confirm the Claim Is Genuine and Actually Yours

Verify that the sender is who it claims to be and is authorized to enforce the specific event. A legitimate demand comes from the distributor or its authorized agent or counsel and refers to a specific event, date, and establishment. You can ask, in writing, who the sender's principal is and what authority it holds for that event, without conceding anything.

Confirm the claim actually matches your business as it exists. These letters sometimes name a former owner, a business you bought or sold, a dissolved entity, an address that changed hands, an event you did not show, or a date you were closed. A mismatch like that is a factual point to document and raise, and whether the statute even reached your setup is worked through on did they even have a case.

Step 2: Take Control of the Communication

Route everything through one channel and put it in writing. If the sender's agents have been calling your bar and reaching staff, tell your employees not to discuss the event, the equipment, the crowd, or anything else with callers, and to take a name and number instead. This is not about hiding anything; it is about not having the case decided by an offhand remark from someone who was not thinking about a lawsuit. Asking that all further contact be in writing is a reasonable request that also gives you a record.

Step 3: Notify Your Insurer Before You Talk Numbers

Before any settlement conversation, notify your insurance broker or carrier. General liability, media, or umbrella coverage may or may not apply, but the time to find out is before you act, because prompt-notice and consent-to-settle conditions can be unforgiving. Tender the claim, ask whether it is covered, and ask what the policy requires of you. Doing this first costs nothing and preserves an option that paying first can destroy.

Step 4: Preserve Records Without Altering Anything

Keep everything related to the event and the letter, and change none of it: the letter and envelope, your account and billing records, device and app information, point-of-sale and staffing records, any advertising or social posts about the event, and any surveillance footage. If a promotion for the event is still online and "looks bad," leave it up; deleting it after a claim has surfaced can look like destroying evidence and can support the willfulness finding that drives the larger damages. Preserving an honest record is protective. Altering one is not.

Step 5: Size the Claim, Then Weigh the Real Options

Only after the above should you evaluate the claim itself. Whether the statute even applied is on did they even have a case; what the law actually allows is on the law they are citing; and what these cases realistically resolve for, as opposed to the ceiling on the letter, is on what venues actually pay. With those in hand, the honest option set is wider than "pay the demand" or "ignore it": you can dispute a claim that is wrong, negotiate a resolution anchored to a realistic number rather than the ceiling, or decline and prepare, each with real trade-offs. The full decision framework, weighing settle against challenge, is its own subject and is covered on the page about your real options, which is not yet published; until it is, the sizing pages above and independent counsel are the way to reach that decision soundly.

Step 6: The Things Not to Do

• Do not ignore it. A demand does not expire, and unresolved claims tend to become filed lawsuits.
• Do not admit facts or volunteer details. Attendance, screen count, cover charge, how the feed arrived, who set it up, whether you "knew": none of that should be offered up, in a call or in writing, before you have verified the claim and, ideally, taken advice.
• Do not pay or sign a release before you understand it. A "discount if you pay today" release may cover more or less than you think, and signing before tendering to insurance can cost coverage. Read what it releases, and by and for whom.
• Do not destroy records. Covered above, and important enough to repeat.
• Do not treat the anger as a plan. The letter can provoke real anger; acting on that feeling instead of on the sequence above is how a manageable claim becomes a lawsuit.

If You Already Said Too Much

If you or someone at your establishment already called and explained, stop adding to it. Do not try to walk it back with more explanations. Write down, for yourself, exactly what was said and when, preserve any voicemails or emails, and treat the verify-preserve-notify steps above as the priority from here. One over-full conversation is not the end of a case; a series of them is worse.

When to Bring in a Lawyer

Many pre-suit demand letters can be handled sensibly without counsel, at least to verify and respond. Some situations call for a lawyer sooner: a settlement figure you cannot evaluate, a letter that already reads like a filed complaint, personal liability in play, or simply wanting a professional to manage the response. When that point comes, the right move is to retain independent counsel who handles signal-piracy defense, chosen carefully rather than under deadline pressure. (A dedicated guide to finding and vetting the right lawyer is planned for this site and not yet published; in the meantime, look for counsel with specific experience in §§553/605 defense, and confirm scope and fees in writing before you engage.) The moment a lawsuit is actually served, that step is no longer optional: see served with a federal lawsuit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I Call Joe Hand or G&G to Explain What Happened?

Generally no, not before you have verified the claim and thought about advice. An unprepared explanation tends to supply the other side with facts about the event, the crowd, the signal, and your knowledge that they would otherwise have to establish. Ask that contact be put in writing, verify the sender's authority and the event, and respond deliberately rather than in an off-the-cuff phone call.

Do I Have to Respond to a Demand Letter at All?

A pre-suit demand letter does not carry a court deadline, so its "respond by" date is the sender's request, not a legal requirement. But ignoring these claims tends to lead to filed lawsuits, so the useful path is to respond deliberately, after verifying and preserving, rather than either ignoring it or reacting immediately. If what you are holding is actually a served complaint, that does carry a real deadline, and it belongs on served with a federal lawsuit.

Should I Send Them My Cable Bill to Prove I Paid?

Not as a reflex. A residential bill does not establish that a commercial showing was authorized (residential accounts are non-commercial), so it may not help and can supply facts you have not thought through. Preserve the bill, but decide how and whether to use it as part of a considered response, not as an immediate reply.

Can I Ask for More Time?

Usually yes, and it is worth keeping that request narrow. A short message asking for additional time to respond, without discussing the facts or the merits, is a scheduling communication, not an admission. Keep it to timing, and do not use it as an opening to explain the event.