New Jersey Attorney Law Review Blog

Attention Bloggers!   In a case that could have far-reaching effects on online commentary in the media, the NJ Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether a blogger from Washington state is protected by New Jersey’s so-called shield law concerning her writings about out Freehold-based Too Much Media Inc. ("TMM"), a maker of software used by many adult entertainment websites to track sales.    According to the court filings, the blogger Shellee Hale, a former Microsoft employee and a private investigator, maintains she was working as a journalist in 2008 when she set out to investigate organized crime infiltration of the online porn industry.  Hale created a website under the domain name  Pornafia.com (which now forwards to shellehale.com) to report her findings, and even planned to publish a book on the subject.  Hale chose not to publish any articles on  her website  (Pornafia.com) because she claims TMM princi...

In an extremely important case that we have followed closely over the past year, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently confirmed that the attorney-client privilege protects an employee's e-mails sent to her attorney through her private Yahoo account while accessing her work computer.  Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc. (A-16-09) (March 30, 2010). We first reported on this case in March 2009 , when the trial judge found in favor of the employer by holding that the employee's e-mails to her attorney were discoverable in her wrongful discharge case against her employer. On appeal, in July 2009 , the New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the trial court, finding that the employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy when she used her private Yahoo e-mail account to communicate with her attorney, notwithstanding that she used her company's computer to access her Yahoo account. The New Jersey Supreme Court, an ardent advocate of protecting its citizens...

(November 2009) Levinson Axelrod, a prominent New Jersey personal injury law firm, has filed suit against its former disgruntled associate, Edward Heyburn, who in September 2009 registered and published a website domain using Levinson Axelrod's name for the purpose of airing his grievances against them. The firm filed suit in the Superior Court of New Jersey on an emergent basis, seeking to shut down the website, www.levinsonaxelrod.net, alleging, among other claims, that the content posted on the site is defaming the firm's reputation, the site is diverting traffic from the firm's legitimate website, www.levinsonaxelrod.com, and the use of the firm's name in the domain registration constitutes cybersquatting and trademark infringement. However, Heyburn quickly removed the lawsuit to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey because Levinson Axelrod’s complaint provides a federal question basis for removal by claiming violations of the federal Anti...

Before Maria Stengart quit her job, she was already making plans to sue her employer. She e-mailed her lawyer during business hours from her company-issued laptop, though she was circumspect enough to use her personal Web-based Yahoo e-mail account. It was not until discovery in the ensuing hostile-workplace, constructive-discharge case that she learned company lawyers had a copy of the message, which was automatically saved on the laptop's hard drive as a temporary file. Now a Bergen County judge, Estella De La Cruz, has held the e-mail isn't protected as an attorney-client communication, finding Stengart waived the privilege by using the company computer and network even though she sent the e-mail from her personal e-mail account with Yahoo!. The ruling, in Stengart v. Loving Care Agency , BER-L-858-08, is a first for a New Jersey state court and one of only a few across the country to deal with the factual scenario presented. The other cases cited by De La Cruz turned on whe...