Insights
Client Alert
New Jersey Court Forbids Employer to Review Employee Emails
July 20, 2009
Glenn S. Grindlinger and Alexander W. Wood
On June 26, 2009, a New Jersey appellate court limited an employers right to review its employees personal emails even though they were stored on the employers computer. In Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., No. A-3506-08T1 (App. Div. June 26, 2009), the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, reversed a trial court and held that an employee did not waive the attorney-client privilege when she used her employers computer to correspond with her lawyer. The Stengart Court also held that the employer could not review and had to turn over any emails it obtained when it searched the computers hard drive after the employee filed her lawsuit.