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Do Email Disclaimers at the Footer, Have Any Validity?

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GLLDave

Junior Member
California.

When people send me emails, I often see for example: "***NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail message is legally PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL and intended only for the recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error then delete/destroy message. Information is not to be used for any business advantages without consent from sender. Thank You ***

Does that little disclaimer at the footer hold up in court, if someone took info from your email and shared it with someone else, or took advantage of it? And say you wanted to sue them for damages in civil court.
 


quincy

Senior Member
California.

When people send me emails, I often see for example: "***NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail message is legally PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL and intended only for the recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error then delete/destroy message. Information is not to be used for any business advantages without consent from sender. Thank You ***

Does that little disclaimer at the footer hold up in court, if someone took info from your email and shared it with someone else, or took advantage of it? And say you wanted to sue them for damages in civil court.
Courts have varied a bit on the enforceability of email disclaimers - but for the email disclaimer you gave as an example to be a valid and enforceable non-disclosure, confidentiality agreement, the recipient of the email must have agreed in advance to accept confidential communications via email and agreed in advance that the contents would remain confidential.

Misdirected emails do not legally bind recipients who receive the emails in error.

Without the recipient agreeing in advance to keep the contents of the email confidential, in other words, there is no agreement formed between the sender and recipient. There is no confidentiality agreement to enforce.

Copyright disclaimers, on the other hand, can be enforceable.

So the validity of an email disclaimer depends on the specific disclaimer.
 
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