Emails and employers

Be very careful what you put in an email (or an online posting for that matter). Remember that anything you put in writing can have the potential to harm you. Here is a recent case that should even drive that home more:

In Scott v. Beth Israel Medical Center, Inc., 2007 WL 3053351 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.
October 17, 2007), the court held that e-mail messages between the plaintiff
and his personal counsel were not privileged because the client's e-mails
were all sent thru his employer's server and the employer's e-mail policy
stated clearly: (i) its e-mail system should be used for business purposes
only; (ii) all communications over the hospital's system were the hospital's
property; (iii) no employee had a right of privacy w/ respect to messages
sent or received over the hospital's systems; and (iv) the hospital reserved
the right to access and disclose such communications at any time w/o prior
notice. The court cited In re Asia Global Crossing Ltd., 322 B.R. 247
(S.D.NY 2005) and Long v. Marubeni America Corp., 2006 WL 2998671 (S.D. NY
October 29, 2006). The court in Long reached the same result on similar
facts. The court in Asia Global Crossing did not find a waiver of privilege
because the substance of the employer's policies and the extent that the
employer's policies had been made known to employees were disputed.