Legal Question in Employment Law in New Jersey

Thank you for your LawGuru question. A known policy of email monitoring by an employer certainly reduces the expectation of privacy in the workplace, and thus makes such monitoring more defensible. But, such action absent a policy to that effect does not necessarily make it illegal. I'd need to know more specifics before I could render an opinion. Please contact me ASAP so that we may explore your options and protect your legal rights. 973-921-0600.

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With best wishes,

Barry F. Gartenberg, Esq.

The leading decisions in the area are to the effect that an employee (should) have no expectation of privacy in email or other communications that take place using an employer's servers. There are some exceptions for attorney-client privileged information (where the law is in a state of flux and may change). However, if you expect something to stay private, use a webmail service and an email client that does not maintain the information locally. Even then, there may be nothing that prevents the employer from evesdropping on traffic. Many better-equipped IT departments do that routinely as a security practice.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm