New York Employment Lawyer Blog

I recently had a married client come to my office requesting that I negotiate a severance package for her after she was terminated. This client felt that she had endured hostile work conditions while at her job but did not want to sue her former employer, as she wanted to put this ordeal behind her as quickly as possible. While at her job, this client was given a blackberry and a work email account.

After I contacted her former employer to negotiate severance pay for her, her former employer’s counsel forwarded to me very explicit emails that my client had received from a tenuous work-related contact. Although these emails came through my client’s personal email account, and were not work related, these emails were still considered the employer’s property, as they were retrieved and sent from the employer’s computer and blackberry. It was obvious to me that the employer wanted to dissuade my client from suing them and was going to go to great lengths to embarrass her and possibly break up her marriage to accomplish this goal.

While I explained to the employer’s counsel that such emails were wholly irrelevant and possibly inadmissible at trial, the damage was already done. Fortunately, my client had not wanted to sue her former employer anyway, but had she wanted to, she might have been dissuaded due to the emails. In the end, the client received a severance package that she was happy with and I can only assume that the former employer was happy with the severance agreement terms which prevented my client from ever suing them in the future.

There are a few lessons to take away from this. First, always encourage your client to be forthcoming about any possible ammunition the other side might have, so that you can diffuse the issue as soon as possible. Second, remind your client that he or she should assume that everything she sends or receives (or views) while at work is the employer’s property and able to be retrieved by the employer at any time.