Legal Question in Technology Law in Colorado
sending emails with confidential company information.
If an employee works for company x and y at the same time, and company x finds out that emails have been sent containing employee personal wages and confidential letters about company x, is company y or that employee liable. There is a staff of 50 employees at company y and the computers have no security passwords on them, can company x successfully take civil action concerning this scenario. The office is accessible by key which the employee at company x and y left accessable to some employees at company x. Is company x still able to take civil action under this situation as well. No criminal cases have been filed againt the employee at company x and y, and a civil summons has been presented to this employee. How would you word your response to the court concerning these allegations. Company x is claimind that since one employee worked for x and y that he/she must be guilty by association for sending the emails. Again, no computer security is present at company y, and no names were associated with the emails that were sent.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: sending emails with confidential company information.
There are specific facts upon which the answers to these multiple questions would turn. I can recommend a good lawyer in Denver (query just says CO law, so if you aren't there....). Best wishes,
LDWG
Re: sending emails with confidential company information.
Yes, that employee may well be in breach of a fiduciary and confidential duty to maintain privacy of confidential company information.
Have you been threatened with a lawsuit?
Remember, e-mails are NOT private and every e-mail contains an IP Fingerprint, identifying which computer and server it came from.
Call or e-mail for further information, (but NOT from a company e-mail account).
Re: sending emails with confidential company information.
The first issue is the employee's duty of loyalty to both company x and y. This appears to have been violated by the transmission of confidential information via email. So the answer is that company x can take civil action. Apparently, since the employee has been served with a summons, that is exactly what has occurred. There are time limits for the response to any complaint filed by company x so I would highly recommend hiring an attorney immediately to either file a response, obtain an extension to respond or negotiate a settlement.
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