[Sussex] E-mail Disclaimers

[Derek Harding]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 03:59:17AM -0500, Steve Dobson wrote:
> All
> 
> Legal question for you.
> 
> What is the legal status/validity of e-mail disclaimers?  My company would
> like
> me to add the disclaimer (see [1] below); personally I dislike disclaimers.
> Having
> read the text I have the following questions:

So far as I am concerned they are an absolute pain and contravene the relevant email RFCs for length of signature.
I faced the same problem here in France and the answer was that no-one can reneg on legal duties. The company is responsible for the company and its servants though it can have internal policies.
On that basis, they cannot disclaim responsibility for the emails sent in the company's name _but_ they can use disciplinary measures if staff contravene the policy.
Most companies actually use the signature/disclaimer as a freebie spam advert which will become unlawful in the UK soon. I have no problem with a simple "The views expressed in this email may not reflect the views of this company." or similar.

-- 
Best wishes,
Derek