Ask yourself, Are Your Emails Creating Vicarious Liability Issues?

Email marketers should take careful steps to ensure that "otherwise innocent" electronic communications do not lead into troublesome and expensive legal entanglements.

Most people would be aware that discussing confidential issues in an email creates a legal liability, but the definition of confidential information is wide to the point where most topics that deal with other people should never be included in any form of electronic communication.

The discussion of a third party if not in unequivocally glowing terms can lead to liability for defamation. These issues should only be discussed in person behind closed doors, and then only with the personnel who are strictly on a need to know basis.

Any form of sexism can be determined sexual harassment when included in an email. The sexism does not have to be extreme, as any form of acknowledgement of sexuality or even gender issues can fit the definition under the law.

99.9% of all the content on the internet is copyrighted and unless the source material is in the very rare position of being in the public domain, the inclusion of that content in an email becomes a legal breach of copyright.

Any specification of actions to be committed in an email can be held up in court to have been a formation of a contractual agreement.

For visual learners (video): Are Your Email Creating Liability Issues?

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