Certified Mail is a USPS service that provides the sender with proof of mailing and, optionally, proof of delivery for First-Class or Priority Mail items. Certified Mail is used when the sender needs a legally recognized record that an item was mailed and that it reached (or attempted to reach) the recipient.
The service generates a unique tracking number, requires the receiving USPS facility to scan the item at delivery, and can include Return Receipt — a green card the recipient signs at delivery, returned to the sender as physical proof. An electronic Return Receipt is also available.
Certified Mail is heavily used in legal, financial, healthcare, and regulatory contexts: contract notices, lien filings, IRS correspondence, debt collection notices, HOA violations, eviction notices, regulatory filings. Many statutes require Certified Mail for specific kinds of correspondence — making it less a convenience than a compliance requirement.
L5 processes Certified Mail through our USPS work-share infrastructure, including bulk-processing for legal firms, financial institutions, and regulated mailers who send hundreds or thousands of certified items each month. We barcode, scan, presort, and deposit at qualifying USPS facilities, and we provide back-end reporting (proof of mailing, delivery confirmation, electronic Return Receipts) integrated with most major law and statement-mailing software.