By now, most people have had the unfortunate experience of inadvertently sending an e-mail to someone who was not the intended recipient. Often this is simply embarrassing or annoying, such as when reply all is used instead of reply . But when attorney-client communications are inadvertently sent by counsel to someone other than the client, the situation can be significantly more complicated.
A recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California serves as a cautionary tale to anyone who receives misdirected e-mails like these, and the message is simple: Read at your own peril. In that case, Terraphase Engineering, Inc., et al. v. Arcadis, U.S., Inc. , the court took the extreme step of disqualifying defendant’s in-house and outside counsel for their handling of an arguably privileged e-mail that was unwittingly sent by the plaintiffs’ counsel to the defendant.
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