Overview

The situation is familiar – an employee is unhappy with his or her treatment at work and thinks discrimination may play a role. The employee retains a lawyer and communicates with that lawyer by e-mail. Some of those email communications take place on the employee’s workplace computer, either in the employee’s personal email account or using the company email system. The employee subsequently sues.

Assuming that the employer has a policy stating that the employee has no expectation of privacy when using the company’s computer systems and that all electronic communications on that system are subject to monitoring and review, can the employer access and review the employee’s email communications with his or her lawyer?

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