Another Thing for Family Lawyers to Worry About: Clients Emailing From Work

There is an interesting and thought-provoking article on page one of the September 19 issue of Minnesota Lawyer about a recent ABA formal opinion stating that lawyers have the "duty to protect the confidentiality of email communications with one's client."  The ABA states that a lawyer must consider whether there is a significant risk that 3rd parties will have access to the communications.  Therefore, lawyers should be warning their clients about the potential hazards of emailing the lawyer from work or on a work-provided tablet or PDA or Smartphone, emails which are discoverable and are the property of the employer.  The same warning applies to the use of public computers, such as at a public library.  The same warning would apply to faxing something to your client at their work.  So, family lawyers, if you didn't have enough to worry about already, here is something else.