Turning in Laptop at End of Employment without Claiming Privilege as to Contents Effects Waiver

http://ow.ly/7Ky2U

An article on the Gregory P. Joseph website.

The article discusses the case Aventa Learning, Inc. v. K12, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129928 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 8, 2011).

The case involves two separate employees claims of attorney-client privilege after they turned in their corporate laptops upon the end of their employment.

In the first instance, the employee never claimed attorney-client privilege upon turning in his laptop. This was deemed to be a waiver of any claim of such privilege.

The second employee did claim privilege of the files on the laptop.  However, with respect to the emails, the Court held there was no reasonable expectation of privacy, thus no privilege extended to the emails.  The second employee was held to have known of the email policy of the corporation, since he held a management position.  Based on the employee handbook policy, the Court stated the employee could not have had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his email communications.