Description
A Disclaimer is a legal statement you need to post on your website (and in some cases, any social media, e-commerce, and other relevant platforms). Its purpose is to protect you from lawsuits by people who sustain injuries (or financial loss) due to their misuse of the information provided – and may be looking to you, as the source of the information that allegedly got them into trouble, to foot the bill.
Having a website Disclaimer protects you from unwanted claims by clearly informing your visitors what you are (and are not) responsible for, and what your visitors and customers should (and, more importantly, should not) expect from you, as well as how the information on your website is and is not intended to be used.
This may sound like it overlaps with your Terms document – and in some respects, it does. However, your Disclaimer is always going to be a more narrow set of statements, made for the sole purpose of getting you off the hook should a customer or visitor suffer some kind of a loss, damage or injury from using your website (or any products, services or information obtained from your site), like an idiot.
The ultimate goal is to avoid claims, disputes and lawsuits altogether. However, if this is not possible, at the very least you want to maximize your chances of getting any lawsuit thrown out quickly (read: before you incur $15K in legal fees just to prove you’re right) – and a good Disclaimer can help you do that.