NLRB advice on confidential investigations has lawyers reading tea leaves 
By:
Kimberly Atkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: confidentiality, federal agencies, National Labor Relations Act, NLRB
WASHINGTON – The employment bar was roiled last year when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that a company policy requiring employees to keep interviews related to internal investigations confidential violated federal labor law.
But since then, the agency has been informally placing limits on that holding by issuing advice memoranda suggesting that companies can make reasonable case-by-case judgments about whether confidentiality is necessary — and attorneys have been eyeing them closely for guidance on how to advise clients.
Fla. Bar panel proposes guidelines for cloud computing
Published: March 11, 2013
Tags: client confidentiality, cloud computing, confidentiality, data security, ethics, legal ethics, technology
Florida lawyers may use cloud computing as long as they take “reasonable” precautions to ensure the confidentiality of client information, according to a proposed ethics opinion issued by a state bar committee.
Destroying client files will cost Dewey more than $1M
Published: January 28, 2013
Tags: client files, confidentiality, Dewey & LeBoeuf
The price of protecting client confidences will cost defunct law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf almost $1.4 million.
Suit alleges D.C. firm failed to protect inventor’s secrets
Published: January 18, 2013
Tags: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, confidentiality, legal malpractice, malpractice, McDermott Will & Emery, negligence
A recently filed malpractice suit seeks to hold the D.C. law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery liable for the alleged theft of a California inventor’s confidential information.
Fired attorney wins $1.3 million verdict
By:
David Donovan
Published: January 14, 2013
Tags: background check, breach of confidentiality, confidentiality
When Waverly Partners, a Charlotte, N.C.-based executive headhunting firm, reached out to attorney Shawn Smith about a position it was trying to fill, she says she warned them that her job would be in jeopardy if her supervisors found out she was interviewing for other jobs.
It turned out she was right.
Insurer’s attorney can’t have ex parte talk with doctor
Published: January 2, 2013
Tags: confidentiality, dental malpractice, ex parte communication, insurance, malpractice, medical malpractice
State law protecting confidential medical information bars an attorney retained by a malpractice insurer from conducting an ex parte interview with a treating doctor who is not a party to the patient’s lawsuit, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled in reversing judgment.
Benchmarks: 7th Circuit takes narrow view of medical confidentiality
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: November 30, 2012
Tags: ADA, AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, confidentiality, disability discrimination
A Wisconsin man claimed that a former employer hurt his job prospects by spreading the word he suffered from debilitating migraines. If true, did the former employer expose itself to liability by violating the Americans with Disabilities Act’s medical confidentiality requirement?
The 7th Circuit just answered that question in the negative, rejecting the EEOC’s broad interpretation of the medical confidentiality rule.
NLRB ruling takes aim at confidential investigations
By:
Kimberly Atkins
Published: August 17, 2012
Tags: coercive action, confidentiality, National Labor Relations Act, National Labor Relations Board, Section 7, unfair labor practices
WASHINGTON – A recent National Labor Relations Board ruling holding that a company committed an unfair labor practice by requiring employees to agree to keep internal investigation interviews confidential is sending employers scrambling to change their policies.
1st Circuit finds confidentiality clause to be overbroad
By:
Christina Pazzanese and Thomas E. Egan
Published: July 7, 2011
Tags: confidentiality, disclosure rules, employment contract, NLRB
A temporary employment agency could not enforce a confidentiality provision barring workers from disclosing the terms of their employment to “other parties,” the 1st Circuit has ruled.
Court-ordered psychiatric exam isn’t ‘confidential’
By:
Pat Murphy
Published: March 3, 2011
Tags: child custody, confidentiality, divorce
The results of a psychiatric examination ordered in a woman’s divorce case are not confidential records within the meaning of a state law imposing liability for the wrongful disclosure of mental health records, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.
