Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: business emails

Is it your employer's equipment, connection, and email system? If so and in absence of an employment contract or employee manual stating something else, generally yes. There may be some exceptions, such as if the employer is destroying evidence (during or in anticipation of criminal or civil litigation), but these types of exceptions arise not because the emails are yours or that the employer needs your permission, but because of the law generally. There are ways to automatically forward emails to a separate email account, but make sure you can legally do that before you set that up.