Establish Instant Messaging Policy and Educate Employees to Help Limit Risks


Don’t leave your organization’s assets, future, and good name in the hands of rogue IM users and careless e-mail writers. As detailed in E-Mail Rules, by Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn, Esq., [10] the United States Supreme Court has made it clear that the development of comprehensive policies backed by employee education may give an organization a defense against sexual harassment or hostile work environment liabilities triggered by an employee’s inappropriate acts or missteps. [11]

Don’t be deterred by the costs (in terms of financial and human resources) of e-mail and IM policy development and employee training. The investment you make today in policy and education will likely be dwarfed by legal fees and settlement costs, should tomorrow you be slapped with a class action lawsuit alleging dozens of female employees were sexually harassed by male employees’ IM and e-mail content.

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Real-Life E-Disaster Story:
E-Mail Evidence Leads to $3.75 Billion Settlement

In one well-known lawsuit (Linnen v. A.H. Robins Co. [12]), the discovery of smoking gun e-mail evidence led directly to billion-dollar settlement discussions. In the course of litigation over diet pills manufactured by American Home Products Corporation, computer forensic experts recovered an internal e-mail from one employee to another, discussing the side effects of the Phen-Fen drug.

The e-mail read, ‘‘Do I have to look forward to spending my waning years writing checks to fat people worried about a silly lung problem?’’

The employee’s insensitive comment was an apparent reference to a rare, but often fatal condition some diet-pill users developed. This smoking gun e-mail forced American Home Products to swiftly settle the case in a deal valued at $3.76 billion—the largest settlement to date involving a drug company. [13]

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IM Rule # 15: Instant messaging policy, education, and enforcement may provide a defense against vicarious liability claims.

[10]Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn, Esq., E-Mail Rules, New York, AMACOM, 2003.

[11]Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998); Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellereth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998).

[12]Linnen v. A.H. Robins Co., 1999 WL 462015 (Mass. Super. June 16, 1999).

[13]Richard B. Schmitt, ‘‘The Cybersuit: How Computers Aided Lawyers in Diet-Pill Case,’’ Wall Street Journal, October 8, 1999, B1. See also Kristin M. Nimsger and Michele C.S. Lange, ‘‘Computer Forensics Experts Play Crucial Role,’’ Lawyers Weekly, May 10, 2002.




Instant Messaging Rules. A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication
Instant Messaging Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication
ISBN: 0814472532
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 241
Authors: Nancy Flynn

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