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< Consumer
Information
Employee Rights
HOW YOUR INTERNET PRESENCE
MAY AFFECT YOUR LAWSUIT
The internet
has become one of the most powerful instruments for socializing and
reaching out to people. Social networking sites have become virtual
coffee shops where people meet new friends or catch up with old ones
by “posting” information on their personal sites. The information
could be written or photographic in nature.
Because of the abundance of information posted on social networking
websites, attorneys looking for evidence in their cases are going
online to obtain information for use in the lawsuits. How is this
relevant to one involved in a lawsuit?
For example, an hourly employee who has access to the internet
while working may be tempted to use work time for personal
activities. While at work the employee may send personal emails,
forward jokes to friends, upload and share photos or “surf” other
websites to read the news or shop online. Down the road the employee
files a claim for unpaid wages, stating that he or she worked more
than 8 hours per day but was not paid overtime. In defense, the
employer retrieves the employee’s internet browsing history from the
company’s computer server. The employer prints out all the emails
and photos the employee has sent and tracks all the websites the
employee has visited using the company’s computer on company time.
The employer can then show to a jury that the employee was not
really working during his or her work hours. This will likely
drastically diminish if not negate the employee’s overtime claim.
There is the story of a female employee who, in a sexual
harassment case, claimed to have been offended by the supervisor’s
sexist remarks. However, a search of the employee’s computer hard
drive at work revealed that the employee frequently engaged in the
exchange of “green” or sexually inappropriate jokes with her
co-employees. Understandably, that case did not go anywhere.
Or consider a personal injury claim that went horribly wrong
because of an indiscrete posting on a website: A young woman was in
the middle of a personal injury lawsuit when she made a post on her
website telling her friends that she was going to get a lot of money
from her personal injury case. However, the young woman had
previously testified in a deposition that she needed money to pay
for her medical treatments. Opposing counsel, who found the posting,
used the information to discredit the young woman’s testimony. She
was portrayed to the jury as a money-seeking plaintiff out to milk
the civil justice system. Needless to say, the case did not turn out
well for this young woman.
The examples above are just some of the issues that we
encountered in our litigation practice. Of course, evidence taken
from the internet can be used not only in employment or personal
injury cases but in other areas of litigation as well – in family
law and divorce cases, for example.
While people should not be discouraged from using the internet
to further their social activities, caution and discretion should
become a motto. Various internet activities are hardly private,
especially if internet access is in the workplace. Additionally,
just because website postings are directed to friends, it does not
mean strangers do not have access and cannot see what was posted.
And even if information is deleted, deleted data can be retrieved by
computer experts. Such data may mean the difference between winning
and losing a case.
©
Law Offices C. Joe Sayas, Jr.
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