In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Simply Storage Management, a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana concluded that information from social networking sites is discoverable by an employer defending a sexual harassment claim.
In 2009, the Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a complaint on behalf of two claimants who alleged that Simply Storage Management (SSM) was liable for sexual harassment by a supervisor. The EEOC requested a discovery conference when counsel for the parties disagreed about the proper scope of discovery relating to requests for information from the claimants’ Facebook and MySpace pages.
The court also concluded that enabling privacy options, which limits who can access profile information, does not shield such information from discovery.
The court then decided that all relevant content from the social networking profiles is discoverable. For information to be relevant, it must be probative to a claim or defense that is at issue in the litigation. Here, SSM argued that content from the Facebook and MySpace profiles was relevant because EEOC had placed the mental and emotional health of the claimants at issue by claiming they sought medical treatment for depression and “post-traumatic stress disorder.” The court agreed, finding that SSM was entitled to discover profiles, postings, or messages that would reveal emotional or mental state.
This decision seems to sanction social network site discovery in the sexual harassment context. In dicta, however, the court acknowledged that EEOC claimed severe emotional distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder. The same scope of discovery may be more restricted for “garden variety” emotional distress claims.