Theofel v. Farey-Jones, 341 F.3d 978 (9th Cir. 2003)

Douglas Wolf and Richard Buckingham, officers of Integrated Capital Associates, Inc. (ICA), were embroiled in commercial litigation against Alwyn Farey-Jones when Farey-Jones’s lawyer, Iryna Kwasny, subpoenaed ICA’s Internet Service Provider, NetGate, broadly seeking “all copies of emails sent or received by anyone.” NetGate, which was not represented by counsel, responded that the amount of e-mail covered by the subpoena was substantial, but Farey-Jones refused to limit its scope. NetGate proceeded to post 339 “sample” e-mail messages from the ICA parties on a website for Farey-Jones and Kwasny to review. The ICA parties were not notified of the disclosure of their e-mail messages, most of which were unrelated to the litigation and many of which were privileged and personal. When the ICA parties found out what had occurred, they immediately asked the court to quash the subpoena, which the court did, and they were awarded over $9,000 in sanctions to cover their attorney’s fees. The ICA parties then filed a civil suit against Farey-Jones and Kwasny, alleging violation of the Stored Communications Act, the Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and various state laws. The district court held that none of the federal statutes applied and dismissed the state-law claims. The Ninth Circuit reversed in part the judgment of the district court, holding that the ICA parties had claims against Farey-Jones and Kwasny under the Stored Communications Act (because the subpoena was “patently unlawful”) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (because the statute does not require a party’s ownership or control over a computer that has been accessed without authorization).
 

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.