How to keep a record of calls and letters about a dispute
Emails and letters keep themselves. The phone call in which the builder promised Thursday does not, and it is the one that turns out to matter. What a note of it needs to be worth anything later.
Keep one log for the whole matter, and put every contact in it — the calls and conversations that leave nothing behind, and the letters and emails that do, so the sequence is in one place. For each one write who it was with, when it happened, who began it, what was said and what was agreed, and by when. Write it the same day. The note's own date matters as much as anything in it: a note made the day of the call is a record, and a note made three months later, after the dispute began, is a recollection, and everybody who reads it knows the difference. Do not rewrite an entry once the matter is contested; add a later one that says what was wrong.
Why the date of the note matters more than its length
Whoever reads the log later — an adjudicator, an ombudsman, a tribunal, the other side's solicitor, or just the other side — will ask one question of every entry before they ask what it says: when was this written? A note made on the day is taken as what happened, subject to argument. A note made after things went wrong is taken as what you now remember happening, which is a weaker thing, and the more it helps your case the more weakly it is taken. That is not cynicism about you in particular; it is how memory is known to work, and the reader assumes it about everybody.
So a log worth keeping records two dates for each contact, not one: when the call or meeting happened, and when the note of it was made. When they are the same day, say so. When they are not, say that too, plainly, because a gap that is stated is a small weakness and a gap that is discovered is a large one. THREAD stamps the note with the moment it was written and shows the gap on the entry; anything written more than two days after the event is marked as such, in the log and in the document it produces.
What a note of a call needs
- When it happened, to the hour if you can. Not the date you got round to writing it.
- Who it was with, by name, and who else was present or on the line.
- Who began it. Whether they rang you or you rang them changes how a promise made in the call reads later.
- What was said, in the words used where you can remember them, and in reported speech where you cannot. “He said the steel would be on site Thursday” is a note. “Spoke to Dan about the steel” is a diary entry, and it proves that a call happened and nothing about what was in it.
- What was agreed or promised, separately from what was said, and by when. A promise with a date is something that either happened or did not; a promise without one is an intention.
- What it refers to, if anything: the quote, the invoice number, the letter of the 4th.
Letters and emails go in the same log
A letter keeps itself and an email keeps itself, so it is tempting to log only the calls. Log the letters too, as one-line entries pointing at the document, because the log's value is the sequence: the call in which a date was promised, the letter three days later asking for it in writing, the reply that did not give one. Read together, those three entries say something none of them says alone.
Keep the originals where the log can point at them. For a letter you received, keep the envelope: a postmark is the sender's date, and it is sometimes not the date on the letter. For a letter you sent, keep a copy and the proof of posting. The log does not replace any of that; it is the index to it.
| Kind of contact | What it leaves behind on its own | So the log needs |
|---|---|---|
| Itself, dated, on both sides | One line: date, who, what it was about | |
| Letter | Your copy or the original, and the envelope | One line, and where the paper is |
| Text message or chat | The thread, until a phone is lost or the app deletes it | One line, and a screenshot kept elsewhere |
| Voicemail | The message, until it is deleted | A note of what it said, the same day |
| Telephone call | Nothing | The full note, the same day |
| Meeting, site visit, conversation in passing | Nothing | The full note, the same day, with who else was there |
| Something you were told second hand | Nothing, and it carries less weight | The full note, saying who told you and when |
You do not need to record the call
Page one of a search on this question is mostly about recording calls and obtaining phone records, which is a different problem. The law on recording a call differs by country and, in the United States, by state, and in many places it needs the other person's consent. A written note of the call needs nobody's consent anywhere, can be made after a call you did not expect, and is the form of evidence the people who decide disputes are used to weighing. A recording is better evidence of what was said, where it was lawfully made; a same-day note is what you will actually have.
Do not rewrite the past
Correcting a note is normal: you remembered the day wrong, or the surname. Quietly rewriting one after the dispute began is what destroys the value of the whole log, because once one entry has been changed without a trace, none of the others can be trusted either. The rule is simple. Correct small errors and let the entry say when it was changed; for anything that turns out to be substantively wrong, leave the entry alone and add a later one saying what was wrong and how you know. THREAD allows edits and records them — the entry and the document both carry a “changed” date — and says, when you save one, that a later entry is usually the better choice.
A worked example
A kitchen extension. On the 10th the builder rings and says the steel will be on site Thursday and the roofers are booked for the week after; nothing is written down. On the 21st, in passing, he says the supplier let him down and he will have a date on Monday. On the 22nd a letter goes to the firm setting out the delay and asking for a date in writing, and the same evening all three are entered in the log.
The log makes the same three entries say what they are worth. The call on the 10th is marked written up 12 days later, on the entry and in the document, because it was. Its promise, steel delivered by Thursday, expected by the 13th, is listed under still outstanding as not recorded as having happened, with the date passed. The conversation on the 21st was written the next day, which it says. The letter was written the same day, and points at the letter. The document that comes out reads:
1. Sep 10, 2026, 10:30 AM — Telephone call with Dan Hartwell, which they began Said the steel would be on site Thursday and the roofers booked for the week after. Agreed: Steel delivered by Thursday Expected by: September 13, 2026 Not recorded as having happened, and the date has passed. Note made Sep 22, 2026, 07:41 PM, 12 days after the event.
That first entry is weaker than the other two and the document says so, which is the point. A log that flattered the late entry would be worth less than one that did not, to the reader who matters.
What THREAD does and does not do
THREAD keeps the log in your browser: the matter and who is keeping it, then one entry per contact with when it happened, what kind, who with, who began it, who else was there, what it refers to, what was said, what was agreed and by when, and whether it happened. It stamps each note with the time it was written, marks the ones written late, lists the promises still outstanding and the ones past their date, and produces the sequence of events as a plain-text document or a CSV. Nothing is uploaded, and it works with the connection off.
The log lives in the browser's own storage, so export it — the JSON keeps everything and can be loaded back in — and keep the export with the letters. It is not a recording of anything, and it is not advice on the dispute; it is the record you will wish you had kept, kept.
Questions people ask about How to keep a record of calls and letters about a dispute
Do I need to record the phone call?
No, and in many places you would need the other person's consent to. A written note made the same day needs nobody's consent, can be made after a call you did not expect, and is the kind of evidence the people who decide disputes are used to weighing. Where a recording was lawfully made it is better evidence of the words used; the note is what you will actually have.
Does a note written weeks later count for anything?
Something, and less. A note made on the day is read as a record of what happened; one made after the dispute began is read as what you now remember, which is weaker, and the more it helps you the more weakly it is read. Write it anyway, and let it say honestly when it was written. THREAD stamps every note with the time it was made and marks the ones made more than two days after the event, in the log and in the document.
What should a note of a call contain?
When it happened, who it was with and who else was there, who began the call, what was said in the words used where you can, and, separately, what was agreed and by when. “He said the steel would be on site Thursday” is a note. “Spoke to Dan about the steel” proves a call happened and nothing else.
Should letters and emails go in the log too, since I already have them?
Yes, as one-line entries pointing at the document. The value of the log is the sequence — the call in which a date was promised, the letter asking for it in writing, the reply that did not give one — and the sequence only exists if everything is in one place. Keep the originals, and the envelope of anything you received.
Can I correct an entry?
Small errors, yes, and the entry then carries the date it was changed, in the log and in the document. For anything substantively wrong, leave the entry alone and add a later one saying what was wrong and how you know. An entry rewritten without a trace after the dispute began takes the rest of the log down with it.
Where is the log kept, and what if the browser clears it?
In the browser's own storage on the device, and nowhere else; nothing is uploaded. That means a cleared browser or a lost device takes it with it, so export it: the JSON keeps everything and loads back in, and the text document and CSV are for sending on. Keep the export with the letters.