We have some law firm clients who continue to insist on including statements in their email footers claiming compliance with the federal CAN SPAM Act. Bad idea.
Of course, every law firm sending email alerts or newsletters has to comply with CAN-SPAM. But bragging about it is likely to get your email filtered.
Why? Since CAN-SPAM compliance is the minimum hurdle a sender must clear to get email delivered, all the bad guys claim they are CAN-SPAM compliant. So your own statement to this effect immediately makes receiving email servers wonder, "are you a spammer?" In fact, because it's mostly spammers who claim CAN-SPAM compliance, claimed CAN-SPAM compliance has become a well known "red flag" that will raise your score with content-based filters.
Moreover, being CAN-SPAM compliant doesn't even prove you aren't a spammer. This is because CAN-SPAM technically allows you to send spam so long as you follow certain rules (although obviously it isn't a good idea and can land you in hot water if you end up getting blacklisted). So claiming you comply with CAN-SPAM doesn't prove a thing.
Our advice? Unless absolutely required by a local bar rule of which your firm's ethics committee doesn't wish to run afoul, delete any reference to CAN-SPAM compliance from your email footers.
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