In the United States the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that the
Loving Care Agency was wrong in retrieving emails that were sent by a
former employee, Marina Stengart, to her attorney even though the emails
were sent using the company’s own computer systems.  In 2008, Marina
Stengart filed a lawsuit against the company claiming discrimination
based on gender, religion and national origin.  Before leaving the
company Ms. Stengart exchanged a number of emails with her attorney by
accessing her Yahoo email account using the company’s computers.  Loving
Care retrieved copies of the emails from their systems and argued in
court that the emails were sent in breach of company policy which states
that emails “are not to be considered private or personal to any
individual employee” and that the company had the right to “review,
audit, intercept, access, and disclose all matters on the company’s
media systems and services at any time.”  Earlier, a trial court agreed
with the company, but in a 7-0 ruling the Supreme Court overruled that
decision and ordered the company to turn over all copies of the e-mails
and delete any record of them.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10248507
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nj_supreme_court_rules_employe.html
http://www.northjersey.com/news/033010_State_court_rules_company_shouldnt_have_read_ex-staffers_private_emails.html