Plaintiffs in an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) recently were ordered to hand over their cell phones and Facebook account passwords for in camera (i.e. private) inspection by a federal Magistrate Judge.
In this case, the EEOC brought suit alleging the defendant employer had subjected a class of female employees to sexual harassment and retaliation. During the course of discovery, the employer moved to compel the production of various text messages and social media posts. According to the Magistrate Judge, there was no question the defendant employer had established this information was potentially discoverable. The defendant had shown, for example, that one of the plaintiffs posted on her Facebook account statements that discussed her financial expectations in the lawsuit, her emotional state, and various other matters related to the ongoing litigation. The fact that this information was generated in cyberspace was irrelevant to the Magistrate Judge’s analysis:Hand it Over: Federal Judge Orders Plaintiffs in Discrimination Lawsuit to Produce Cell Phones and Facebook Account Passwords
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