E-Mail to Lawyer Not Privileged Because of Employer Policy

Attorney-Client Privilege

E-Mail to Lawyer Not Privileged Because of Employer Policy

Posted Oct 30, 2007, 08:26 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A New York judge has ruled that a hospital’s e-mail policy means messages sent by a physician to his lawyers are not protected by attorney-client privilege.

The policy at Beth Israel Medical Center specified that employees had no personal property right in their messages and the hospital had the right to read and disclose e-mails, the New York Law Journal reports in a story reprinted by New York Lawyer.

Judge Charles Ramos of Manhattan ruled the e-mail sent from a hospital computer could be disclosed in a lawsuit by physician W. Norman Scott that claims he was fired in violation of his contract.

Scott is represented by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. The law firm had argued its e-mail confidentiality notice protected the e-mail. But Ramos said the disclaimer “cannot create a right to confidentiality out of whole cloth."

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Posted by Richard - 10 months, 6 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

FYI - re the DoD banner issue
Posted by Gretchen Klebasko - 10 months, 6 days, 2 hours, 9 minutes ago

DNP: Thought you might be interested in this.
Posted by Mark Carlton - 10 months, 6 days, 2 hours, 1 minute ago

Joe - You may want to tuck this away. Often, during mergers, employees use the company’s computers for a variety of things, like communicating with their lawyers. I have always taken the position those can’t be privileged because the employees are using the company’s computer.
Posted by Bruce - 10 months, 6 days, 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

Does this mean that an employee’s e-mail to his IN-HOUSE attorney is also not privleged when the company has a similar policy?
Posted by Kennedy - 10 months, 6 days, 27 minutes ago

Mark’s comment prompted me to think about what ‘the company’s computer’ is ... I’m assuming the MD used his in-house e-mail account, but would mail sent through a private e-mail account, accessed using a company-supplied PC or mobile device, but not through the company network, still be protected?
Posted by David Hudgens - 10 months, 5 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes ago

Advise your clients to be careful if they are using an employer’s e-mail system for personal legal matters
Posted by judy.daniels@concentra.com; mark.solls@concentra.c - 9 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 26 minutes ago

This is good for the company. We already knew we could access employee’s emails. This case says that employees can’t send privileged emails from Concentra’s system.

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Attorney-Client Privilege