U.S. Supreme Court Delivers Important Workplace Privacy Decision
6/23/2010

Summary:

Stoel Rives attorney James Shore discussed in Business Insurance the impact on employers of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in City of Ontario, Calif. v. Jeff Quon. The Court ruled that a police department's search of a police officer's text messages was reasonable because the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and because it was not excessive in scope.

"Employers should inform their employees that when using an employer's communications equipment or communication system, they cannot assume they have workplace privacy and, in fact, they should be on notice that those communications can be monitored for legitimate workplace purposes," said Shore. "There can be many of those, depending on what the employer does."

"Employer wins case over searching worker texts" was published by Business Insurance, June 21, 2010.