Wednesday, April 16th 2008
Divorcing employees: An employee’s right to privacy in work e-mail
A Law.com article discusses Employee E-mail and the Right to Privacy in an employment context where the former employee is suing the former employer. A similar situation may play out in a divorce.
In California, if an employer’s e-mail system is used, the employer generally owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the company as well as those either sent outside the company or those that are originate outside the company that are sent to a company employee can be subject to monitoring by an employer. This includes web-based email accounts such as Yahoo, and instant messages. This also includes telephone and voice mail systems. In general, employees should not assume that these activities are not being monitored and are private. In divorce, one spouse or their attorney could issue a subpoena to the other spouse’s employer requesting all e-mails to or from the other spouse. The spouse issuing the subpoena may be seeking information related to the other spouse’s earnings, an affair, or other information. Divorce lawyers typically try to to find every bit of private data about the other spouse in a divorce. In the past (and present), they have hired investigators to assist them. Now, they could simply issue a subpoena to the other spouse’s employer to obtain potentially damaging information.
Do not assume that e-mail, even e-mail to an attorney, that is sent or received using a company e-mail address, is private. I may be obtained through the court system in a divorce case.
View other articles for: Divorce and Separation