Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: subpoena email

You can only subpoena records as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit. If you have not filed such a suit you cannot subpoena anything.

Whether such a request would be justified would depend upon the issues involved in the case. Yahoo would have to notify the account holder of the subpoena, and that person would have an opportunity to challenge it in court before the records could be released to you. If her challenge were to succeed, you would be denied access to some or all of the records you want.

Re: subpoena email

Mr. Hoffman is correct. You would need to be in litigation or have an attorney seriously contemplating litigation to get someone's emails. Imagine someone wanted to see all of your emails. We handle complex litigation, if you have a claim worth going to court over.

Re: subpoena email

I don't agree with Mr. Firemark's prediction that Yahoo would vigorously resist your subpoena. Businesses which are entrusted with customers' private information -- especially banks -- receive and obey subpoenas all the time. There's little reason for Yahoo to react differently , and plenty of reason for it to avoid costly litigation which it would most likely lose.

There may be reasons why Yahoo would want to resist particular subpoenas, but the idea that it will react this way to all subpoenas is hard for me to accept.

None of this changes what I said previously about the requirements you will have to meet before you can subpoena anything or about the accountholder's right to oppose the subpoena.

Re: subpoena email

Further, Yahoo would probably decline to present any information on the ground that they don't have any, that they are merely a conduit, like the telephone company or the postoffice.

Re: subpoena email

Yahoo! will likely resist any subpoena with everything they've got. Unless you've got very strong evidence of wrongdoing by the party in question, and can link him/her directly to particular emails, dates, times, etc., I think you'll have a very tough time getting a court to order disclosure of the emails.

Even if a lower court did grant such an order, it's likely that Yahoo! would appeal... so it could be years before you actually get access to the information you're seeking.

As an ISP and email provider, Yahoo! would swiftly lose all of their customers if they complied with subpoenas too easily... customers expect these companies to protect privacy.