Things You Should Never Put in an E-Mail

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Molly McDonough of the ABA Journal puts together a list of things you should never put in an email, borrowing from Roger Matus10 Things Never To Put In Email:

  1. “I could get into trouble for telling you this, but…”
  2. “Delete this email immediately.”
  3. “I really shouldn’t put this in writing.”
  4. “Don’t tell So-and-So.” Or, “Don’t send this to So-and-So.”
  5. “She/He/They will never find out.”
  6. “We’re going to do this differently than normal.”
  7. “I don’t think I am supposed to know this, but…”
  8. “I don’t want to discuss this in e-mail. Please give me a call.”
  9. “Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.”
  10. “Is this actually legal?”

If you find yourself typing one of these phrases, perhaps you should delete the entire email. These are catchphrases often used by e-discovery professional to find smoking gun emails.

Author: Doug Cornelius

You can find out more about Doug on the About Doug page

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