Postal Law

We Make Sense of the Maze of Rules

The more effectively you can navigate the postal rules, the more you can minimize your postal costs and avoid costly extra charges weeks or months after your mailings go out. We can help. Drawing on our decades of experience, we provide guidance in:

• Move update and other preparation requirements
• Requirements for presort discounts and other work sharing discounts
• Content requirements for first-class mail, standard mail, periodicals mail, parcel and media mail, and nonprofit mail
• Internal compliance audits
• Resolving conflicts between postal regulations vs. privacy and other laws
• Organizational eligibility for nonprofit postal permits
• Negotiated service agreements
• Legal safeguards against undue discrimination among mailers by the postal service
• Licensing intellectual property from the postal service;
• Selling goods or services to the postal service
• Buying or selling a publisher, catalog mailer, printer, mail house, or mail services supplier

When the Postal Inspector Comes Knocking

Sometimes a mailer finds itself the target of an investigation or enforcement action. When that happens, Venable is prepared to respond. We help mailers respond to subpoenas, investigations, and enforcement actions by the Postal Service, the Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice, including:

• Adverse eligibility rulings before a mailing is sent
• Subpoenas and investigations by the Postal Inspection Service concerning past mailings
• False Claims Act investigations and litigation, including qui tam lawsuits
• Revenue deficiency assessments and appeals
•  Permit revocations

We will help you design and execute the best response, whether litigation, settlement, or self-reporting.

Advocates for the Industry

The lawyers in our postal practice advocate not only for individual mailers but also for the industry. We regularly represent leading postal trade associations and major mailers in issues of industry-wide concern.

We appear regularly before the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Postal Service, the federal appellate courts, and Congress. We have represented clients in every major postal rate case since the late 1970s.

The litigation experience of the co-chairs of the postal practice group includes more than 100 cases before the Commission and other federal and state regulatory commissions, and more than 50 reported cases in the federal courts.

Our clients can also rely on Venable's depth in related areas of the law. We draw support from attorneys who concentrate in administrative law, advertising and marketing law, antitrust and trade regulation, appellate litigation, criminal law, employment law, False Claims Act cases, insurance law, legislative advocacy, nonprofit organizations, and taxation.

Client Focus

• Catalog retailers
• Credit card issuers
• Financial service companies
• Health care providers
• Insurers
• Internet retailers
• List management and postal software vendors
• Magazine publishers
• Mail services providers
• Newspaper publishers
• Nonprofit organizations
• Presort bureaus
• Printers
• Professional associations