The first 48 hours

The first ten minutes: do less

You see the sender’s name. Your chest tightens. Your brain begins writing six replies and conducting a trial in the kitchen. This is not the moment to open every attachment.

1. Do not reply. Not even the devastating sentence you have composed in your head.
2. Do not forward it around. Keep the circle small and protect private material.
3. Do not delete or alter anything. The received email and attachments are records.
4. Finish the safe thing you were doing. Feed the dog. Make tea. Let your heart rate come down.

The attachment will not mature into a better legal argument while unopened—but it will still be there when your thinking brain returns.

When you are ready: preserve before reading

1. Create or open the correct folder for the matter.
2. Save every attachment exactly as received. Never overwrite a received file.
3. Print the email to PDF and save it in the same folder as [EMAIL] Re: exact subject line.pdf.
4. Record the date, time and method of receipt. Note any attachment that is missing, corrupt or password-protected.
5. Back up the folder. Your inbox is not a filing system, and it is definitely not a courtroom.

Ask AI to triage it—not answer it

Upload the saved email PDF and attachments only after checking the service’s privacy settings and any confidentiality or court restrictions. Paste this prompt. Its job is to show you the shape of the problem without drafting a hot response.

The first day: verify the shape of it

Read the AI brief first, then inspect the original wherever the brief points. Slow is smooth here.

• Confirm the sender, address and contact details independently. Be cautious with unfamiliar links and payment instructions.
• Count the pages and attachments. Check that nothing referred to is missing.
• Read the exact wording around every stated deadline. Separate a court date or formal requirement from a date chosen by the sender.
• Check any order, rule or case against its original source. “AI sounded confident” is not a citation.
• Put verified dates into a calendar with reminders, while keeping the original document as the authority.
• Add the event to your chronology and correspondence log.

Choose the smallest sensible action

The second day: build control

1. Map the letter. Put each allegation beside the evidence supplied, your source material and any genuine gap.
2. Verify the law. Open the real judgment, legislation, rule or order. Read the surrounding text, not just the attractive sentence.
3. Decide the response route. No response yet, brief acknowledgement, request for particulars, substantive response or urgent advice.
4. Draft cold. If a response is needed, draft from the map—not from the feeling the letter produced.
5. Sleep before sending where time allows. A night’s distance has rescued many paragraphs from a dramatic career.

Things not to do in the first 48 hours

• Do not send the emotional reply, the sarcastic reply or the 11:47 pm “one final point” reply.
• Do not negotiate while flooded or telephone merely to argue. If a call is necessary, plan it and make a contemporaneous note.
• Do not rename, edit or overwrite anything received. Work from separate copies.
• Do not paste sensitive material into an AI service before checking privacy, privilege, confidentiality and court restrictions.
• Do not let AI turn an allegation into a fact or a possibility into legal advice.
• Do not make your partner and friends hear the case all day, every day. They are your people, not your full-time litigation department.

Eat. Hydrate. Walk. Sleep if you can. Get professional mental-health support when the load is bigger than your ordinary support system. Staying healthy and safe is part of the work.

Your 48-hour board

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