How to add a legal disclaimer to your email signature
Legal disclaimers have been a part of email signature design since the very first email signature was sent.
Some people choose to add legal disclaimers to their email signature in case any private and confidential information is accidentally sent to the wrong recipient, or if the recipient they are sending to, needs to know some certain legal information before reading email messages from them.
Wikipedia calls them Email Disclaimers and describes them as: a disclaimer, notice or warning which is added to an outgoing email and forms a distinct section which is separate from the main message.
Reasons you might include a Legal Disclaimer include:
Confidentiality: Including that this email is confidential may form part of another agreement that you have signed, where you must state any confidential correspondence.
Copyright: If a Designer is emailing a concept design, they may want to add that the design is copyright in their legal disclaimer.
Defamation/Discrimination/Harassment: To protect the company, they might include a legal disclaimer that addresses that anything said in the email message is not of the view of the company but the employee only.
Viruses: In case a virus is accidentally sent by email, including some information about how you use virus protection in your email disclaimer could be necessary.
Should I include a legal disclaimer in my email signature and what should I write?
If you are sending emails that include confidential information, or just think that you might need to include a legal disclaimer in your email signature, you should always seek legal guidance.
We include some standard legal disclaimer text for example purposes, but it might not cover all situations.
Example Legal Disclaimer Text
If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.
It's best to talk with a Lawyer or Solicitor about your individual needs, just as you would when writing your website terms and conditions and privacy policy.
How to add a legal disclaimer to your email signature using Email Signature Rescue
Legal disclaimers can be added to your email signature by logging into your Email Signature Rescue Dashboard, creating or editing an email signature and going to the "Messages" tab.
Enter your legal disclaimer where shown. You can also choose to add a "Read more" link to the end of your disclaimer. This is helpful if you require a long legal disclaimer, but don't want to show it all on your email signature, and can link to an online version of it instead.