Parties to employment matters seek to discover income tax returns for several purposes: An employer defendant may want the plaintiff’s returns to see what the plaintiff’s post-termination income has been. Plaintiffs as well as defendants might want the returns of expert witnesses to try to impeach their trial testimony. Friday’s revised opinion by the Alaska Supreme Court […]
A police detective secretly video-taped several officers’ locker room, investigating the theft of a flashlight. The Ninth Circuit now holds that the officers had both a subjective and objective reasonable expectation of privacy, and that no reasonable supervisor could have believed that the search was constitutional. The detective, thus, had no immunity to a damage claim […]
Privacy of employee contact information: In a wage and hour action, a California appellate court has held that the employer must release residential address and telephone information for fellow employees. The court rejected the employer’s proposal (adopted by the trial court) that each employee must first authorize the release of such information. In the absence of […]
Caltech may be liable for unnecessary enforcement of federally-mandated background checks
NASA required “low risk” employees at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to submit to the same in-depth background investigation required of federal civil service employees. That process requires completion of Standard Form 85 and authorization for the government to send a Form 42 (”Investigative Request for Personal Information”) […]
Grooming policy defeats public policy claim to privacy; unanimous opinion augers poorly for employees
The Court has affirmed the trial court’s (Charles Huguelet) summary judgment for Safeway on Miller’s implied covenant claim that Alaska ’s public policy of privacy protected his right to wear his hair long. In an earlier opinion, the Court had disposed of Miller’s claims based […]
An employment opinion, and two other opinions that may be of interest to the employment bar; and a Comment
Set-aside criminal convictions and licensing: In State, Bd. of Nursing v. Platt, 2007 WL 3121603 (Alaska Oct. 26, 2007), the Supreme Court reversed the Superior Court (Charles Huguelet) and held that the Nursing Board may properly consider a […]
Looking for evidence of computer pornography, company officials, at the request of the government, searched the office and computer of a manager. (The officials thus became de facto government employees.) They turned over the incriminating material to the FBI. In the ensuing criminal prosecution, the employee moved to suppress the results of the search; the motion failed. […]
