Legal Commentary

Consultant Joseph Howie isn't the only one who's annoyed with those boilerplate disclaimers that clutter the bottom of almost every firm or company's e-mail messages. 

We all know the panic of realizing that you accidently sent e-mail to the wrong person, thanks to overly helpful autofill features ? or that queasy feeling when you hit "reply-to-all" rather than reply-to-only-one. (Especially if you weren't exactly diplomatic in your response.)

Howie, who also is involved with the Law Institute (née E-Discovery Institute) says it really is possible to create effective disclaimers that will help protect senders in the aforementioned Maalox moments ? yet not be insipid. See "Crafting Effective E-mail Disclosures: Transform your message footer from mere annoyance to pragmatic e-discovery tool."