Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Liable
I work at a print shop. Often customers ask if we can scan documents and send them to an email. My question is that if the items are accidentally send to a different email address, would we be vunerable in some legal way? Please site cases, if possible.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Liable
I don't have time to do research right now on this issue, but until someone can come up with case law, I would have the potential client sign a document waiving your liability in the event that the email goes to the unintended recipient.
Re: Liable
Ms. Healy is correct. Why should what you are doing having any greater protection than someone forwarding mail, etc. If the e-mail is negligently sent to someone else, your company would be liable, but the customer would have to provide damages which is very difficult unless your error resulted in losing a contract on a business proposal, etc. the mistake is not sending an e-mail, it is putting the wrong URL on the transmission. even with a waiver, if you are negligence and it causes some economic injury, the customer may still be able to successfully sue you. On the e-mail transmission, you should have a warning at the beginning [best would be to have the actual e-mail as an attachment] the message should not be read or used by anyone but the intended receipent; that will not save you from suit, but it will help somewhat.
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