>Al,
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>Getting a lawyer yourself is probably the smartest thing you can do. My guess is that the company does indeed own the documents and their content. It kind of all depends on the type of understanding this former employee and former employer have. Usually a company will have their employees sign an understanding of these issues but who knows.

I have no idea what sort of employment agreement or whatever else is in place. My guess agrees with yours, that if the company can prove ownership of the computer it also owns all content. However, I can't help but wonder if a computer is really just a form of paper. If I "borrow" a ream of paper from you and write my magnum opus, do you own it? You may own the paper but not necessarily the information embodied on it...

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>I'd also suggest you wait a little until cooler heads prevail. If they do then the former employee will most likely come to his/her senses. If not, I'd think you don't want to get in the middle.

That's likely to be my recommendation to them. The best solution by far would be for the former employee to voluntarily give the password to the company. Second best is probably for the company's lawyer to talk to the former employee's lawyer and get her/him to convince the FE to cough it up.

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>Now.... Should the company later on call you and say something like, "We have physical posession of the computer. Can you come over and unlock it?" then I'd consider it a) for a fee large enough to cover your lawyer's fees and enough extra to make it worth your time. I'd think your lawyer, at the least, would want you to get a letter from the company indemnifying you from any possible present and future liabilities... Even then that might not keep you out of harm's way, so I'd proceed cautionsly.

They already *do* have physical possesion of the computer; it's in the locked office. If all attempts at reason fail and I decide I want to do the job, I'm thinking I'll require a meeting with my lawyer and the company CEO to hammer out just such a letter.

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>Essentially they're paying you because they failed in some form or fashion, either in their hiring abilities, lack of due diligence, etc... And there's no reason in my mind you should 'enable' them to continue... If they gripe at you over wanting a larger-than-normal fee it seems to me that all you need to do is remember that it was their actions/inactions that got themselves into the fix they are in - not you.

I'm not concerned about a larger-than-normal fee, other than to cover any legal outlays. As for "enable to continue", when a company is arranging financing/an IPO there can be a fair bit of pressure to get access to their own documents ... :-\

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>Heck.. If it's a good enough company get paid in stock... <g> Costs them nothing now and perhaps pays off big time for you later...
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>Hope that helps..

It does. Thanks.

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>>I do network support for a small tech (non-computer) company. They are currently at a pre-IPO stage with just a core of fairly senior executive types.
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>>I don't know the company well, nor any of the employees well personally.
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>>They just went through some sort of struggle with the result that one of the employees has resigned effective immediately and has been locked out of his former office. Apparently this employee was responsible for most corporate communications and most of the company's documents are on his computer. Access to the computer is secured with a password, which the remaining employees don't have and which the former employee seems unwilling to provide.
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>>Emotions are running high and legal action between the company and the former employee seems likely.
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>>I have been asked to defeat the password on this computer (which I am capable of doing) so that the company can access the documents it contains.
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>>The company CEO assures me that the computer is the property of company, not the former employee.
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>>While I'm technically capable of doing the work, I'm extremely concerned about the legal ramifications:
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>>- does legal ownership of the computer mean the company has carte blanche rights to all its contents?
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>>- if the contents will become important in a legal dispute does special care need to be taken that its contents are not tampered with after access is achieved?
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>>The last thing I want to do is open myself up to getting sued by the former employee for making this PC accessible to the company (which will likely be his legal adversary).
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>>Opinions, anyone?
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>>(BTW I *am* in the process of finding a lawyer to consult, just thought I'd ask here out of interest)