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It does seem like a footer along the lines of This message is not intended as legal advice. I am not your lawyer. added to emails from lawyers or other law fi
by Zak 16y ago
It does seem like a footer along the lines of
This message is not intended as legal advice. I am not your lawyer.
added to emails from lawyers or other law firm employees casually discussing legal issues could prevent the accidental creation of an attorney/client relationship. Something similar might help prevent liability for medical professionals trying to be helpful.
Of course, the vast majority of these are pointless and annoying. It's not usually possible to impose any legal obligations on someone simply by sending them an email.
- tptacek 16y agoCame here to say that. Seems like 2 of the 3 examples this article provides of useless disclaimers do not in fact attempt to unilaterally create a contractual obligation.
- marcomonteiro 16y agoActually in certain circumstances it can impose a legal obligation. For example, I'm licensed to sell real estate in California. As a real estate agent, I can create an agency relationship by giving advice in an email. This means that if someone acted on my advice and was harmed by it that they'd have the right to seek damages. I believe attorneysand CPA's have the same obligation. Unless it is explicitly understood that advice given does not create an agency relationship or something to that effect.
- Zak 16y agoYou can impose a legal obligation on yourself by sending an email, and that's what some of these footers are intended to avoid. I don't think you can impose a legal obligation on the recipient of a message though.
- marcomonteiro 16y agoTrue. I wonder if the same would apply if this disclosure/terms were placed as the header with something along the lines of "by continuing to read this email you hereby agree to the following...", similar to TOS on websites.