e-mail Communications of Employee Are Privileged

Emails that were exchanged by employee and her attorney through her personal, password-protected web-based email account were protected by the attorney-client privilege, even though emails were sent on the employer's computer and a version of employer's handbook purported to transform private emails into company property.

"Finding that the policies undergirding the attorney-client privilege substantially outweigh the employer's interest in enforcement of its unilaterally imposed regulation, we reject the employer's claimed right to rummage through and retain the employee's emails to her attorney."

Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., --- A.2d ----, 2009 WL 1811064(N.J. App. Div. 2009)