“Self-Help Discovery” In Discrimination Cases May Be On The Way
An important new Supreme Judicial Court decision has paved the
way for Massachusetts employees pursuing certain discrimination
claims to engage in what the court has dubbed "self-help
discovery." This new variant of "discovery" would
permit employees, in certain circumstances, to lawfully take and
disclose confidential employer documents before a lawsuit has even
begun. This ruling emphasizes the importance of maintaining
appropriate security for sensitive documents, including firewalls
and other technological barriers.
Employer Learns The Hard Way: "Nothing Is
Private"
The case, Verdrager v. Mintz Levin, involved a sex
discrimination claim filed by a former associate attorney against
her law firm. The evidence showed that Mintz Levin encouraged
employees to save "almost all" documents to the
firm's Electronic Information System, making them available to
any other employee at the firm. While the
