An appellate court in California has ruled that attorney-client privilege does not apply to messages sent from a client using his or her corporate email account; the particular case was that of a young woman who felt that her employers had become hostile when learning of her pregnancy. The emails between her and her attorney were introduced at trial as evidence of her emotional state.
The emails were not considered confidential because the small business involved had a written policy declaring email to be monitored and intended for business use only. This is further proof of how important it is to have properly written and publicized security policies in a business environment.