Posted on May 27, 2009 by Jennifer Weisberg Millner

CYBERSTALKERS BEWARE

 Penalties and new obligations for cyber stalkers are the subject of two bills in the New Jersey Assembly which  have been given renewed interest recently. At present, a stalking victim is entitled to a restraining order limiting contact to the victim from the stalker. Under Assembly Bill A-2143, the contact that the convicted stalker prohibited from making would include e-mails via the internet. This is to afford the victim an additional layer of protection against his or her abuser. In a related, bill, A-3348, an individual who is convicted of stalking would be required to provide the appropriate law enforcement agency with his or her e-mail address or username, along with any appropriate password. In the even that the individual fails to do so, they would be guilty of a fourth degree crime which is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 18 months and a fine of up to $10,000.

These two bills demonstrate the acknowledgement that electronic communications are no longer on the fringe of interaction and have become methods which are used (and abused) by individuals daily. To the extent that a individual stalks another, electronic communications are often a weapon of choice. These bills would attempt to close a loophole that currently exists in the law as it is currently written.

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Posted on March 10, 2009 by Jennifer Weisberg Millner

Be Careful With Those E-mails to your Lawyer!

When I have an initial interview with a client, one of the common questions that comes up is, “how should I get in touch with you?” Because I am at times up and working early in the morning, or out of the office in court during the day and catching up at night, a common response is, “e-mail.” As we continue to move into the age of technology; when our President has a Blackberry, e-mail is increasingly supplementing phone calls as a way for me to communicate with clients.

Yet there are a couple of important things that have to be considered when communicating electronically with a lawyer. I had previously discussed some of these issues in a previous blog. For instance, it is important to remember that AOL, and other non-web based e-mail servers may place copies of your sent and received e-mails directly onto your hard drive. Therefore, any person in the household who has access to your computer also may also have access to that you may have believed were confidential communications to your attorney. Thus, I always suggest that client’s use a web-based e-mail such as yahoo, gmail or hotmail.

 

Another issue that comes up is the fact that many clients utilize their work computers and e-mail address to communicate with their legal counsel. A unreported non-matrimonial case was recently decided, Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, in which an employee had used her company issued laptop to e-mail her lawyer. Even though she utilized her web-based e-mail address, a temporary file was still stored on the hard drive. Thus, the court found that the employee had waived the attorney client privilege when she used the company’s hardware. Important in that case was the fact that the employee handbook specifically provided that e-mail messages were part of the company’s business records. Also in this particular case, the employee had used the company lap top to communicate with her lawyer about the terms of her resignation from the company.

 

Notwithstanding the particular facts of this case, it is surely the tip of the iceberg floating our way. This is an area of the law in which the technology is moving faster than we can respond. It is imperative that you know what files will be stored on the hard drive of the computer that you are using when conveying information to your lawyer. The lesson to be learned here is that when you have critical confidential information to get to your lawyer, pick up the phone and give me a call.

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