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Do You Need Email Disclaimers on Your Emails?

You’ve probably seen an email disclaimer hanging out at the bottom of an email in the email signature.

But what is it for?

What sort of function does it serve?

Well, an email disclaimer usually has some sort of legal purpose to it.  If it doesn’t have a legal purpose, then it has a marketing message behind it.

However, the most common email disclaimers are probably those stating that an email may be confidential and no part of that email should be duplicated. You may also see something regarding the views expressed by others in the email not representative of the views of the company.

For marketing purposes, the email disclaimer may include something regarding the company’s particulars. This can reside by itself or be a part of a legal disclaimer within an email. It more or less depends on what the functions of your business are and whether or not you really need a disclaimer to protect anything. Some companies do not need them, but some sort of disclaimer can project some kind of professional image.

Let’s look more closely at some of the frequently asked questions regarding disclaimers:

Are email disclaimers necessary?

This depends mainly on the policy of the company you are working for. If the C level decide that a disclaimer is necessary that’s pretty much what you’ll have to do. In general you are not required by law to add a disclaimer except for specific professions and countries (for example, in Germany a GmbH company needs to add specific details to the email including Legal Form, Registered office etc. )

Why do we need email disclaimers?

Email disclaimer serve a few purposes, for example:

• To prevent breach of confidentiality. Information may be intended for the recipient. If that information is leaked, they could get into trouble.
• Virus transmission is another issue. It is very easy to mistakenly send a virus in an email and this could actually get your company sued. You can have a disclaimer that says the email could possibly contain a virus and that the recipient is responsible for scanning for viruses.
• Companies are liable for the content of the emails sent by their employees. However, companies are unable to monitor every single email that comes through. Sending a disclaimer regarding this can keep the company from being held liable for the content of some emails.

What should an email disclaimer contain?

First and foremost, your email disclaimer should adhere to your company’s policy. We recommend that it would be visible in your signature but not too prominent and definitely keep it as short as possible so there’s a chance people will actually read it.

Are email disclaimers legally binding?

We are not legal advisers so you should always take a legal professional’s advice on this matter. For the best of our knowledge, adding a disclaimer in many cases is another way of protecting yourself and placing you in a safer place. Of course, this depends on the specifics of what you are trying to accomplish, the exact words you used, the laws and regulations you are subject to etc.

Also, as mentioned above, some countries and industries are required by law to add certain types of information / disclaimers to each email

What’s the purpose of confidentiality notices in email?

Confidentiality notice is your way of suggesting / demanding that the contents should be confidential. However, normal confidentiality requires both parties to agree so the legal status of such notice is non existent. As we mentioned, we are no legal experts so please take this to your legal team for more information

How to add email disclaimer?

Well, this is the part we are experts in  The perfect place to add a disclaimer is in your email signature. As for where you can get effective email signatures to display your email signatures containing your disclaimers, you can check out WiseStamp, www.wisestamp.com, and get them that way. WiseStamp enables you to create your signature in minutes, using top notch templates and designs. You can use it to add customized email signatures to your Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, Mac Mail, Hotmail, yahoo, AOL mail and more. WiseStamp has a special app that allows you to simply type in the disclaimer and place it below your signature. You can create multiple signatures so that you can choose which is appropriate for the particular email you are sending. This makes creating an attractive email signature a lot easier because there are email signature templates and many other tools that can be used.

How to write a disclaimer examples?

The disclaimer app has a few disclaimer examples you can use, but you should talk to your legal adviser to see how to best customize it to your specific needs and requirements.

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