Case: Stengart v. Loving Care Agency 201 N.J. 300 (2010) - Opinion by district judge Rabner:
CASE QUESTIONS
1. What were the legal issues in this case? What did the New Jersey Supreme Court decide?
2. Why does the Court conclude that the plaintiff had a reasonable expectation of privacy in her e-mail communications with her lawyer? Why was the computer use policy not sufficient to extinguish any expectation of privacy?
3. This case was not brought as a privacy tort claim, but what if it had been? Was the intrusion of the sort that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person?
4. To what extent is this decision tied to the fact that an attorney-client communication was involved? Does the outcome of this case suggest that the Court would rule on behalf of a plaintiff in a pri-vacy tort claim based on some other type of communication using company property but not the company e-mail address or intranet? Why or why not?
5. What are some practical implications of this case for employers?