Is my friend subject to legal action if he accidently emailed clients of a previous employer?
A Consultant is threatening ‘legal action’ against my friend. With his new business endeavor, he decided to email prospective clients. During his email campaign, he accidently included a distribution list in his email from a previous place of employment. The consultant threatening legal action noticed the emails and phoned my friend saying he was going to speak to a lawyer.
Upon recognizing the error, my friend immediately emailed this distribution list (6 hours later) indicating that they were not the intended recipients and appologized for the error. My friend signed a contract with this past consultant to not solicit his clients in the future.
It happened once in error. Is my friend subject to legal action in this matter?
What he did is extremely unethical in the business world, and the former employer holds every right to sue him for the actions
He could be
Your friend may have disclosed a trade secret. He could be in serious trouble for his negligence.
He could be, but as long as he “ceases and desists” it hopefully won’t come to that. He needs to be sure and keep printed copies of the apology e-mails. And it may be that he was not supposed to have possession of those e-mail addresses once he was no longer with the last employer, so that may be an issue as well. However, if he does not do any business dealings with the old company’s clients, he should be okay in the end.
That lawyer has no case if your friend did not sign any type of non compete agreement. If he did, the he better lawyer up because it will be a bumpy road ahead.
On it’s face. Yes, he is in breach of his contract. That it was an error will only matter when it comes to damages, perhaps the court will say he does not owe that much, but as for who is in the legal wrong your friend is.