Work emails to spouses may not be protected by marital privilege
Yesterday in a criminal case, United States v Hamilton, 2012 WL 6000731, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that emails the defendant sent to his wife over his employer’s email system were properly admitted as evidence against him. At the time he sent the emails, his employer had no computer usage policy, but it subsequently adopted a policy providing that “users have no expectation of privacy in their use of the Computer System”. The court held that because the defendant failed to delete his old messages once he knew that policy was in effect, he waived his privacy rights and the messages could be used against him.
Click on the link above to download this Debevoise & Plimpton briefing.
Briefings from Debevoise & Plimpton
The FCPA in 2012
The year 2012 will probably be remembered in the annals of FCPA history as the year of the Guidance.
India proposes a revamp of its company law regime
On 18 December 2012, the lower house of India’s parliament cleared the Companies Bill 2012, in a significant step towards replacing the more than 50-year-old Companies Act 1956.
