Years ago my boss had once been the head of a now-defunct organization. Some bit of legal business popped up 15+ years later, requiring a statement on letterhead of the defunct organization. I just designed some letterhead, and printed the whole thing off, he signed it and all went smoothly after that!
Did you use the former boss’s current home address, or the address of the defunct organization, or something else?
i don’t think the access is the issue - I’ve never worked anywhere where access to the letterhead is all that restricted. Maybe the janitor or someone who has a job that doesn’t ever involve printing on letterhead might not have access, but that’s it.
But this
seems a little off. I mean, maybe you’ve forgotten about it , but it’s hard to imagine that your employer has never in any way told you that you can’t use the letterhead for personal communications.
An incident I’d heard of recently. A state worker used state letterhead for a personal legal matter, with the subtle implication that her department was involved. Result was an “ethics review” and I think eventual firing.
It does, thanks! 
In legal terms, “privileged” means exempt from disclosure, or in some case exempt from admission before the court. So no. As for whether it means something if a message is on letterhead rather than stock paper, no, not really. It means the sender is representing that the message is attributable to the company/organization, but there’s no (US) legal rule that says “a company is presumed to be liable for communications made on its letterhead” or anything.
It is an informal indicator of genuineness, so it has some implications for evidentiary and agency purposes.
Linky no worky.
Come to think of it, though, an Ohio judge was disciplined some years ago for sending campaign fundraising letters on court letterhead. That’s a definite no-no.
The original request was sent to the defunct organization’s address but reached my boss without difficulty at his new address, so I just used the old address.
I work for a huge company (a bank) with more than 200,000 employees. And despite a half dozen code of conduct and other compliance courses every year I don’t believe I’ve ever even seen the word “letterhead” since the late '90s.
We just have company provided logoed envelopes in the supply room and anybody in the world (with a badge that lets you in the building) can use them (and a small supply of letterhead paper but I’ve never seen anybody actually use it). I’m sure other divisions (such as in branches) may have more policy related instruction.
But otherwise it is just covered by the general “don’t use ANY company resources for personal purposes.”
Makes sense. Thanks.
I understand Ferdinand Demara (the Great Impostor) would take advantage of letterhead that he had swiped to write his “official” letters, such as recommendations and introductions. They were rarely challenged.