Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Email unrecoverable

An error occurred with my email system such that I was no longer able to login to my account; thus, I was never able to view my saved emails. When I contacted my email server's technical support, the rep explained that if there are emails in my folders that are older than 3 months, not only can those emails get corrupted, but they will corrupt the rest of the files as well! And once these files get corrupted, apparently my old emails can no longer be recovered or retrieved! He also explained that his company was well aware of this problem and that they were working on correcting the problem for future versions of the software. Had they sent a courtesy email to its members explaining this issue, this problem would have been avoided altogether. Do I have any recourse or should I receive any compensation for the emails that are now banished from the face of the planet?


Asked on 5/12/05, 9:47 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Email unrecoverable

You need to re-read your service agreement with the ISP to see what they promised to do and what they didn't promise to do. The service you've received seems incredibly shabby (and my computer savvy firends agree), but as a matter of legal rights as opposed to what constitutes commercially-viable service, you must be guided by the specific terms of your contract, perhaps somewhat broadened by what a client ought reasonably to expect in the way of durability and robustness in a service that, truthfully, didn't embody experimental or cutting-edge promises, but merely held itself out to perform a pretty routine service.

Keep in mind that legal actions against service providers like this generally must allege and prove actual damages. In order to bring and maintain a lawsuit with any prospect of getting damages in excess of your legal costs, you would have to show that loss of the e-mails caused you to suffer monetary losses.

Read more
Answered on 5/12/05, 8:55 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Computer & Technology Law questions and answers in California