New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog

A recent case from the New Jersey Superior Court should make any employee who has ever used a work computer to send or receive email from an attorney a little nervous. In Stengart v. Loving Care Ag. Inc., No. BER-L-858-08 (Feb. 5, 2009), the Court held that the attorney-client privilege did not apply to emails between an employee/plaintiff and her lawyer which were accessed on the employee's work computer -- despite the fact that the emails were accessed through a personal, password-protected email account. The Court thus permitted the company to use the employee's emails to and from her attorney to defend against her discrimination claims.

As reported by the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, the Court based its decision on the fact that the employer had a published electronic communication policy which "adequately warned employees that there [was] no reasonable expectation of privacy" with respect to any emails generated or viewed on company issued computers, and the fact that the employee was aware of the policy.

This decision reminds us that any time you contact your lawyer from your work computer, you run the risk of exposing the communication to your employer or other third parties. This situation is particularly dangerous for employees who are engaged in litigation with their current employers, although it applies to everyone. If you must communicate with your lawyer during the work day, the most prudent thing to do is to step outside the office and make a telephone call. Save the emails for when you get home from work.

Posted by Steven Siegler | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Civil Rights Violations , Discrimination and Harassment , Employment Contracts , Food for Thought , Non-Compete Agreements , Severance Negotiations , Wage and Hour Claims , Whistleblower Retaliation

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For years, federal courts have had a field day chipping away at the Americans with Disabilities Act, reading it in an ever-narrower way and applying it to an ever-shrinking number of Americans. Finally, we have passed common-sense legislation which undoes all the damage the federal courts have done to the ADA over the years. Last September, Congress passed and President Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. Today, the EEOC published a red-lined version of the law on its website, so you can see the original law and the changes to it all on the same page.

If you take a look at the text of the law itself, you'll see that the "Findings and Purpose" section of the new law specifically overturns two particularly bad U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams. The Sutton case had limited the ADA's protection for employees whose disabilities could be "mitigated" by measures such as medication, treatment, or medical devices, and the Toyota case had tightened the standard for individuals to be considered "substantially limited" by their disability.

The new law states that the definition of “disability” is to be interpreted “in favor of broad coverage of individuals . . . to the maximum extent permitted . . . .” This was the original intent of the ADA, which, in my view, had become lost by federal judges (particularly Republican Supreme Court justices) bent on "de-regulating" disability discrimination law out of existence. The amendment act is a stern rebuke to these judges and a re-affirmation of our country's important goal of eradicating discrimination in all its forms from the workplace.

Posted by Steven Siegler | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Discrimination and Harassment , Severance Negotiations

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