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Legal Briefs
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Business New Haven
11/2/1998
By:
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Good Hands Slapped
Remember the class-action lawsuit against Allstate address the insurer's practice of sending a letter to discourage accident victims from hiring attorneys? Finally, after receiving a formal opinion from state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Allstate has been ordered to stop sending the controversial correspondence by state insurance Commissioner George M. Reider.
The Latest in Behavior Modification
Without admitting guilt, Northeast Utilities (NU) recently settled a 1997 state complaint regarding certain of its wastewater-discharge practices. Under the settlement, NU will pay $700,000 in penalties, “contribute” $500,000 for environmental projects and undergo compliance audits. State Environmental Protection Commissioner Arthur J. Rocque Jr. and Attorney General Blumenthal both agree that while NU's actions did not actually result in a serious environmental incident, they were designed to circumvent the law and created a risk of same. Published reports quote Rocque as saying that the issue involved was “less of a public-health threat and more of a behavior problem that needed to be modified.” Perhaps the ringing cash-register bell will have the desired effect.
Dumpster Diving Redux
Economic boom times create an active job market, and employee movement from company A to company B is commonplace. What happens, however, when the employee takes information from A to B without A's explicit permission? The reasoning behind two cases recently decided by New Haven superior court Judge John T. Downey seems to say that it depends on the nature of the employer's business.
In Dunsmore & Associates Ltd. v. D'Alessio the plaintiff, an executive-recruitment firm, sued a former employee who had removed documents containing data on both prospective employers and employees for use in his soon-to-be-competing recruitment firm. Dunsmore claimed that the documents - client lists in varying formats - were trade secrets that had been misappropriated under the Connecticut Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA; see BNH, May 5, 1997) and that defendant, a former employee, should be immediately enjoined from using the information. Looking to factors such as the value of the material and Dunsmore's efforts to maintain confidentiality, Downey decided that the lists were trade secrets, and D'Alessio was prohibited from using them.
In Early, Ludwick & Sweeney v. John Henry Steele, however, the opposite conclusion was reached. The plaintiff, a New Haven law firm, claimed that the defendant, a recently departed employee, used information gained during the course of his employment to advise selected clients of his new affiliation and his continued willingness to represent them. Downey decided that: 1) the information itself - client contact and insurance data, as well as blood-lead levels - was not sufficiently “secret” (lawsuits had been filed on behalf of 75 percent of the clients in question, making the information public knowledge); 2) the law firm did not adequately protect the information (although a specific icon was installed allowing access to lead-poisoning case files on a number of computers, the computer system itself did not have a restricted password protecting those files); and, perhaps most importantly, 3) the public policy of a client's virtually absolute right to be represented by counsel of its choice would be violated if the court overrode the decision of a litigant to change from the attorney originally selected.
Law Calendar
The Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA) presents the first of three “Case Strategy and Analysis Service” programs. 9 a.m.-noon November 14 at the law firm of Jacobs Grudberg Belt & Dow, 350 Orange St., New Haven. $255-$270. Call 860-522-4345 to register or for info on 1999 dates.
CTLA presents a “Trial Practice Workshop.” 9 a.m.-5 p.m. November 21 at Quinnipiac College, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. $45-$265. Call 860-522-4345.
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