Total Articles: 24
A Worthy Goal – Zero Interoffice Emails!
Do you cringe in the morning while your computer boots up – anticipating the onslaught of emails that demand your immediate attention? Or maybe you’re a late night replier – too tired to think – but trying to clear your inbox so you can sleep like the rest of the world. Could a world without emails exist?
District court jumps the gun on free speech (pdf).
In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision. In Garcetti v. Ceballos, the Court held that public employees do not enjoy First Amendment free-speech rights when their speech is in connection with their official duties. A new decision by the Third Circuit limits the applicability of the Garcetti decision, holding that an employee acts as a citizen ― not an employee ― when he anonymously criticizes his employer on an online message board.
Jumping the Gun on Employee Internet Activity
A new decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals provides public employers with some additional guidance regarding employee internet activity. In the case of Beyer v. Duncannon Borough, police officer Eric Beyer was terminated from his position after he posted anonymous online comments, critical of the Duncannon Borough Council. More specifically, Beyer criticized the Council for its opposition to the purchase of new AR-15 rifles for the police department.
In the name of productivity and consistency, employers should permit employee Internet access at work
Employers should allow employees access to the Internet at work. It is pointless to try and control it. And now, there is evidence that doing so makes them better workers.
No Injunction on Ex-Employee’s Blogging Absent Extraordinary Circumstances, New York Court Rules
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects from judicial restraint discussions over matters of public concern, including claims of wide-scale data breaches of social security numbers and other personal information by a former employee on a blog, a New York State Supreme Court justice has ruled. Cambridge Who’s Who Publishing, Inc. v. Sethi, 009175/10, NYLJ 1201482619238, at *1 (Sup. Ct., Nassau Cty. Jan. 25, 2011). Finding no extraordinary circumstance that would overcome the Constitutional protection, the court denied a company’s application for a preliminary injunction prohibiting its former employee from blogging about the company and its products, despite his agreement to maintain the confidentiality of confidential business information.
Employer Liability for Accessing Employee’s E-Mails
When a former employee sues his former employer, an immediate issue of concern is how to preserve all electronically stored information (ESI) that may be relevant to the claim. Failure to do so may result in a claim of spoliation, sanctions against the employer and its legal counsel, or even an adverse ruling. Good employment counsel understands these consequences and how to avoid them in the first instance.
The Lesson to Learn From University Dean’s E-mail Snafu
Wesley University’s Dean of Students was one of several academic advisors who received an email from the school’s Director of Advisement.
Auto-Forwarding Employee E-mails Presents Risk Under Federal Wiretap Act.
Employers’ ability to monitor e-mails sent by employees at work is a hot topic in privacy law and is being addressed by a growing number of courts around the country as the law works to catch up with technology. In Chicago, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals gave reason to view this issue from a different perspective, finding that an IRS agent violated the Wiretap Act by secretly setting up his boss’s e-mail account to forward all received e-mail messages to his own account.
Are Employees' Personal Emails On Work Computers Private? "Sometimes" Rules N.J. Supreme Court.
Until last week, most employers believed that they had the right to review -- and in fact owned -- any electronic information stored on company computers. In a recent decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court carved out an exception to this rule. When an employee exchanges emails with her attorney through a personal web-based email account using a company computer, that email is attorney-client privileged even though the computer may automatically create a viewable copy of the email's text in temporary internet files on the company computer. In addition to ratifying, once again, the sanctity courts grant to the attorney-client privilege, the case highlights the importance of well-drafted company policies to enforce workplace rules and protect employer rights. Although the precedent applies only in New Jersey, the decision is significant for all employers.
Advice on Employees’ E-Mail (pdf).
You may have seen the November 24 Wall Street Journal article about a handful of recent court decisions finding that employees have a right to privacy in e-mails transmitted on personal e-mail accounts accessed on company computers. Importantly, under these and similar decisions, the employees would not have had such a right to privacy had their employers maintained a well-drafted technology use policy. Accordingly, it has become more important that employers draft, disseminate and enforce workplace technology use policies to defeat employees’ claims that personal e-mails on company computers, including communications with attorneys, are protected by a right to privacy. A well-drafted technology use policy should provide that:
How Often Should Employees Check E-Mail After Hours?
If you’re an associate at the law firm Quinn Emanuel, the answer is “very, very often.”
Regulating Employee Email.
Considering the widespread availability of computers and email to employees, it's hardly surprising that union organizers and pro-union employees now look to an employer's email system as a prime means of organizing. Here, in the context of an important new legal decision, we discuss options for lawful and effective management and control of your e-systems, including in particular your email systems.
E-Mail and Online Etiquette: What Employers and Employees Need to Know.
Everyone has some awareness that e-mail is not a particularly safe mode of communication and that you should refrain from sending confidential information over an e-mail server. Most people also know that once you click “send,” you have created a permanent record of that correspondence.
An Employer’s Right to Monitor E-Mail and Text Messages Remains Strong.
Employers continue to have the right to access, monitor, and review an employee’s use of e-mail and text messages when that employee is using company-provided technology. Yet, recent publicity of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision has created a new buzz about the privacy rights of employees. This new decision, however, does not create an exception to the generally accepted rule: employees do not have an expectation of privacy in the communications that they send with company-provided technology. To the contrary, it outlines the importance of consistent and appropriate enforcement of electronic use policies.
Employees Blogging.
If it sometimes seems that everyone in the U.S. has a blog, there's a reason for it. Technorati, a website that covers the blogosphere, says it is tracking 112.8 million blogs currently, with 175,000 new blogs coming on line...each day. People blog about politics, entertainment, food and wine, and every intimate detail of their lives. They also blog about their employment – and their employers.
Waiver of Privilege By Employees' Use of Company Email Systems To Communicate With Their Attorneys (pdf).
Employers now can use workplace policies governing the use of technology to defeat employees’
claims that email communications with their attorneys over the company’s computer systems are
privileged, according to a recent ruling by the New York County Supreme Court in Scott v. Beth
Israel Med. Ctr., Inc. In Scott, a hospital employee used his work email account to communicate with his personal attorneys. When he later sued Beth Israel for breach of contract, the hospital’s
attorneys found the communications on the hospital’s computer systems. The court denied the
employee’s motion for a protective order, and ruled that the employee waived the attorney-client
and work product privileges by using his work email account to communicate with his attorneys.
Venting Online: How To Deal With Employee Blogs.
Blogs (electronic internet diaries or postings) are booming. Employees are now using blogs to broadcast information and opinions worldwide. Inevitably, some of those employees will post negative, harassing, hostile, false, or confidential information and opinions about their employers and co-employees.
Blogs: Why They Matter to Employers.
One of the latest trends in electronic communication, “blogs” are fast, easy, inexpensive, and universally accessible. They’re also unregulated, though, and can subject an unwitting employer to liability.
Employers May Be at Risk for Employees' Internet Usage (pdf).
An employee’s Internet usage, whether at home or
at work, has the potential to expose the employer to
legal claims, including sexual harassment, hostile work
environment and defamation.
Managing Risks Associated with Employee Blogs (pdf).
A blog, short for “weblog,” is an online journal where
the author can share his or her thoughts and opinions
with the millions of people who surf the Internet each
day. To capitalize on the rapid rise in popularity of
blogs as a form of new media, many of the nation’s
leading companies have begun to publish offi cial
corporate blogs as a means to humanize the company,
reach customers and address critics in a personal and
informal way.
Employers' Duty To Investigate Worker's Online Porn Viewing (pdf).
In a decision that demonstrates the
potential liability facing employers
across the country, a state appellate
court in New Jersey recently ruled that
a company may be held liable for damages
suffered by a victim of child pornography
where it failed to investigate
reports that an employee was viewing
child pornography online while at
work. The court held that an “employer
who is on notice that one of its employees
is using a workplace computer
to access pornography . . . has a duty to
investigate the employee’s activities
and to take prompt and effective action
to stop the unauthorized activity.” Doe
v. XYC Corp., No. A-2909-04T2, Superior
Court of New Jersey, Appellate
Division (December 27, 2005).
Employee Web Logs Raise Privacy, Confidentiality Issues For Employers (pdf).
Many employers have comprehensive
policies addressing e-mail, Internet
usage, confidentiality, trade secrets,
and solicitation. As the business world
has steadily transitioned into the digital
age, HR departments have kept pace
by crafting and revising these policies
to protect company resources from misuse.
However, an increasingly prevalent
source of risk for employers has
often escaped notice – the proliferation
of employee web logs, or “blogs.”
Don't Get Bogged Down With Workplace Blogs (pdf).
Added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, “blog” is “a frequently updated Web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary.” A blog is similar to a website, and in some cases blog visitors do not even realize they are visiting a blog rather than a website. A blog usually contains web links to other blogs
and websites, news stories, and items that also appear on websites. The key difference between a blog and a website is that a blog allows the owner to post “diaries” through which visitors can read and interact. Thus, in practice, a blog can be similar to a chat room or message board, but focused on specific topics of the blog owner’s choosing.
You've Got Mail, A Pink Slip, And A Lawsuit (pdf).
Are you effectively keeping tabs on your electronic communications systems (email and internet)?
