Legal disclaimers are used to define and limit duties between parties in various situations, but standardization is difficult. They may not always limit risk, as willful breach of duty can still result in liability. Disclaimers must be properly communicated and accepted to be valid.
A legal disclaimer is a disclaimer or limitation of liability between the parties arising from some interaction between them. The use of a disclaimer in situations ranging from contract and patent law to product and personal liability makes standardization elusive. While the wording of a legal disclaimer may occasionally be specified by law, there is no required language to apply in all other cases.
Potential liabilities or responsibilities could arise from a variety of relationships. A buyer and seller negotiating a sales contract might want to define precisely what the product should do and who pays if it doesn’t. There could be a very different kind of responsibility between a landowner and someone who wishes to cross his land. While disclaimers can apply to so many different situations, their common element is the intent to define and limit a duty that one party may have to the other.
While a legal disclaimer can be helpful in resolving due duties, it does not always achieve the goal of limiting risk. A bicycle manufacturer, for example, has a duty to build bicycles that can reasonably be expected to be safe for their intended use. A legal disclaimer printed on the box may not be sufficient if, for example, the manufacturer knowingly uses substandard bicycle frame tubes, resulting in an accident. Even though the rider may have seen the disclaimer and agreed to take responsibility for any accidents, the manufacturing company’s willful breach of duty leaves him or her vulnerable to a lawsuit as if there had been no disclaimer.
Even an incorrectly communicated legal disclaimer may not have any effect. If an offender fails to see a “No Trespassing” sign, it has little value as a disclaimer. Likewise, printing on a parking slip that a garage’s liability for damages is limited to $500 US dollars doesn’t make it that way. If the car owner never reads the receipt, he hasn’t necessarily accepted the limit. The car owner could also reasonably expect that the loss of a car worth $30,000 USD would be compensated for more than $500 USD.
Disclaimers, therefore, are similar to contracts in that they outline a limited aspect of what is often a business relationship. Like a contract, a valid legal disclaimer generally has a specific, well-defined purpose and is properly communicated and accepted. It also does not allow one party to shirk a duty that the other party should reasonably expect.
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