What is the current legal position concerning email disclaimers and how are they used?
Email disclaimers are designed as an attempt to limit the sender’s liability for the content of a message. However, their ability to prevent liability for negligent behaviour is very limited. If someone is discriminated against or the email content is racist then a disclaimer will not make the offence disappear. At best it may be possible to show that you have attempted to limit the damage by indicating that the content is confidential and if received in error that it should be clear to the recipient that the material is confidential and should be treated as such. The following article provides some explanation on this subject – http://www.venables.co.uk/n0209emaildisclaim.htm. You may also be interested to read the detailed treatment of the ‘Legal Position of Email Disclaimers’ available at – http://www.weblaw.co.uk/artemail.php. In addition the information available on the Manchester Metropolitan University website concerning their use of an email disclaimer is available at: http://w
