Internet law laywyer needed. Anyone know of any?
 

A friend of mine was wrongly terminated from her job when her employer kept pissing in the bathroom directly in front of her desk with the door open. After telling him a few times not to do that, he said "if you dont like it, you can get the fuck out...". She said she didnt like it, and he fired her.

After months of waiting for her lawyer to do shit, she finds out that her ex employer had his laywers go through the computer she used to use and get all kinds of shit on her about coming into work hung over and doing drugs etc... that stuff has no relevance to the case yet it discredits her badly.

Here is my question... This info they got out was from her personally AOL account. They logged into her account and took her personal emails, etc... She was sending these emails during work but it was her private aol account. Are they allowed to do that?

Does she have a case?

Thanks.

ps. please let me know if you know any law offices i can refer to on this issue.

Its been a few months? She fucked up, should have had a lawsuit filed within a few days

If it was all on her computer, they have any right to view anything sent from that computer, any logs of her conversations.

Ever notice a work computer with PCAnywhere? They could view any & everything you do on a work computer! And if she left her AOL info on the computer, that's her problem! :1orglaugh Is she blonde?

Also depending on what state she worked in. Like if it was California, you can fire or quit with NO notice or reason! What state did she work in?

jDoG

How's that have no relevance? Doing drugs? Coming into work hungover? Great reasons to get terminated!

jDoG

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV:

However a friend of mine just went through the same sort of thing, the company he worked for installed a program to monitor all of his activity, and found Email he had sent they disapproved of, and fired him, I asked a question to a internet lawyer here is his reply
(This was a question/answer NOT legal advise)
this was in response to the ECPA law:

<I>Under ECPA, a company has the right to examine its own computer equipment (including info stored on the computer) - but it should inform the employee of the possibility of monitoring (as there can be a question on who "owns" what info on the computer, as well as whether its examination is for systems abuse, etc). Whether the data was "private" may depend on whether the monitored email account was for business, personal or combined use - and whether others had a password or other access to the info. Even if a violation occurred, the ECPA is not self-enforcing, so the employee would need to raise any ECPA claims and seek to bar the data. Not much case law available, so hard to predict what might happen. If the info is not protected under ECPA, then your friend could be terminated in most states without any problem, based on lack of loyalty. If the only issue is whether to receive unemployment or not, unlikely that he would want to invest big bucks to fight the issue.</I>

lawsuit was filed immediately. things just dont happen overnight unfortunately.

She was never fired for coming in hungover. and it only happened a few times. i think everyone that drinks has had to go to work hungover a few times.

She didnt do drugs at work. It was in an email about doing E with her friends at some club previously.

She was terminated for refusing to let him piss in front of her.

And apparently there were sexual advancements made towards her, he asked her to wear low tops etc., tried to get his son to pull his pants down in front of her, told her she could not hire men, only women, etc... list goes on.

I have been helping her through this as much as i can, but im no lawyer and far from one.

What state was it in?

jDoG

I didn't really give a clue, on where I was going.

Look up the ECPA, which is about data privacy, and is comparible to a 'wiretap' law for computers, if she had no written policy for computers in the work place (a signed one at least) and the account was a personal account she could seek to have it disbarred in accordance with the ECPA, like the lawyer said though not a lot of case law to predict on.

Informative! Thank you very much! :thumbsup

Joe O. from http://xxxlaw.com

Easy to prove the drugs..hard to prove the pissing.

We advise our ermployees that we monitor.

She should have complained sooner.

Time to move on.

:2 cents:

yes, this is in CA.

so if thats the case, sucks.

And why didn't she mention anything to a lawyer about the sexual advancements before? I don't think that would be relevent anymore, just because it looks like she's pissed because he fired her!

jDoG

You're gonna have a hard ass time in california. California is a right to work state, meaning you don't need to give notice before you quit or before you get fired. And employeers don't need a reason to fire you, unless you're in a union! Only union's can get around wrongful termination.

jDoG

who said she didnt???

It depends on the state. In California, for example, they can fire you for any reason. They can fire you just because they dont like you.
Employers are under no obligation to continue to employ you if they don't think it's working out.

She'll need proof of complaining early on when it happened! Not after she got fired.

jDoG

You can contact Judith Silver at

[email protected]

954 630-3551

She is very good, very knowledgable, and she knows this business.

She'll need proof to prove what she spoke about with her lawyer? client - attorney privileged conversation?