Most businesses rely heavily on email contact both internally and externally. It is important to remember that anything you say in an email could be potential fuel for a lawsuit against your company. Protect yourself and your business by applying common sense and using the following guidelines designed to help minimize your legal exposure to email-related lawsuits.
1. Have a Formal Email Policy in Place
Before you give any employee, contractor, client, or anyone else an email account that represents your business, have a formal, written email policy in place. Make sure the person you are giving email privileges to reads, agrees to, and signs the email policy statement before they are given email account privileges.2. Use Aggressive Firewall and Internet Security Software
Many virus strains can get into your computer and steal email addresses from your address book, as well as directly from any emails you have saved on your computer’s hard drive. These viruses are so aggressive that they can also infiltrate servers and intercept mail.Viruses can send out email that looks like it is from your company. Many viruses are capable of figuring out your password and before you know what’s hit your server, will send out thousands of SPAM emails from your account.
3. Change Your Password Often
Sounds simple, but few people do it. Use complicated passwords, with alpha-numeric characters no less than 8 characters long.4. Use Disclaimers But Don’t Rely on Them Exclusively
Disclaimers are very important to add to emails and offer you some legal protection. But they are not fool-proof – you still have to think before writing. As many prime time legal themed shows like to say “anything you say can be used against you in a court of life.”5. Be an Optimist Not a Pessimist When Reading Email
Emails are often short, terse, and without the benefit of voice or facial expressions, easily misinterpreted. If an email seems hostile, read it again. Before responding, clarify with the sender what their intent was.Often, brief email replies are interpreted as rude, short, or angry, when they are not intended that way. If an email can be read two ways, either positively or negatively, give the sender the benefit of the doubt until you clarify its true meaning.
6. Sit on All Business Deals and Emotional Email Replies
Once you hit that “send” button, it is almost impossible to get an email back. Before jumping on a business offer, or replying emotionally to any email, think it through. Write your email reply in the moment if you want to put your thoughts down, but save it as a draft post and do not send it.Come back in an hour and see if you still feel like saying the same things in the same way. Most writers find that they will edit emails when they are saved as a draft and reviewed again before sending the email out.
7. Always Send a Blind Carbon Copy to Yourself
Emails can easily be tampered with. Be sure to send yourself a blind carbon copy of every email message that you send. Doing so creates a record with date/time-stamp and ISP information that can help establish an original post from one someone has tampered with, who who tries to claim an email was sent from you.8. Know the Law
United States Federal Law puts strict guidelines on how businesses can use email for marketing and information purposes. Failure to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 could result in fines of $11,000 or more, criminal charges, or being blacklisted from mail servers.Suggested Reading
