Assume that you are working as a discovery consultant for a party to a lawsuit.

Assume that you are working as a discovery consultant for a party to a lawsuit. That party has sued her former employer for improper termination and for damages under the civil damages provisions of the stored Communications Act (18 USC section 2707.)

She alleged that her employer’s wife posted on her private Facebook page derogatory remarks about the employee, and that those remarks were seen by her employer who then started the corporate internal process to fire her. During that process, the employer, through his personal Gmail account, solicited derogatory information about the employee from her coworkers and use the information he received from them to justify her termination.

The employee also alleges that the employer found the password to her personal Gmail account, improperly accessed that account and forwarded her messages to his own Gmail account that he thought would be useful evidence in the termination proceeding.

The lawyer handling the case wants access to the wife’s private Facebook page, the e-mails from the employer’s Gmail account that will identify the coworkers who provided derogatory information, and copies of the employee’s e-mails that the employer forwarded to himself from her account.

Your Task:

Write an initial discussion post explaining to the lawyer why she cannot subpoena the contents of the private Facebook page or the e-mail messages to and from the coworkers from Facebook and Google.  Then, suggest how she can get the relevant contents of the private Facebook page and the relevant email messages.  Finally, explain how she might be able to obtain  the messages forwarded from her client’s Gmail account.