Accused for damaging company's file

[flukmanji]

Hello, i need legal advise on this please, i just resigned from a job with a private company and after a week or so i recieved a certified letter and an invoice for $5000 from that company. Letter saying that, prior to the termination of my employment (which is not true because i resigned) i had destroyed their files/documents and it cost them $5000 to restore them. And then it says if the payment is not recieved then legal action will be taken against me personally! the letter is supposedly from President himself, since his name is at the bottom BUT signed by my manager. Well, this company do not have any security measures when it comes to files and emails, all the employees in the office have same default password for login into computers and email account. is it illegal to delete emails from your company's email account when they were address to you once you're done with it? i had created a document listing all my duties for day to day basis at this company which no one (management or officials) had asked me there to create it. usually people write it down on notepad what they have to remember to perform their work, in my case i use to type it in a document and when i left the company i deleted it, it this illegal? these were my instructions on how to do my job efficiently. since i left my manager has to do all my work and as i hear from my ex-collegues over there he is so frustrated that he can't manage it. because of this he has written this letter to me and invoices me $5000 just to get back at me. i'll appreciate any help/advise in this matter. Thanking you in advance.

 

[FlaRiptide]

is it illegal to delete emails from your company's email account when they were address to you once you're done with it?

Most companies encourage the deletion because of lack of storage space on the server. If the emails were of dire importance to be kept, the company would have invested in an automatic archive system.

i had created a document listing all my duties for day to day basis at this company which no one (management or officials) had asked me there to create it. usually people write it down on notepad what they have to remember to perform their work, in my case i use to type it in a document and when i left the company i deleted it, it this illegal?

Anything you created while employed becomes the property of the employer. If this was the only thing you deleted, it appears the $5,000 is just an intimidated bluff. Yet, if you are withholding telling us everything and you actually deleted more pertinent files then you may be in a more serious situation.

 

[flukmanji]

FlaRiptide, thank you very much for your response.

no way, i would not dream of touching their customer or vendors information or company files/info that is any pertinent info, i know how critical is that. and also, don't they have to prove that i deleted a document before they accuse me of?

and how can they possible restore something that they have no knowledge of what information was in it? since i'm the one who created it.

 

[flukmanji]

how can i reply back to them? legally can they do this w/o any proof?

 

[Patricia_Young]

Ignore them. They're trying to bluff you. If they decide to sue, THEN get an attorney, who will likely get the case thrown out as frivolous. The ONLY chance they have of ANYTHING is if they can prove that you intentionally deleted files critical to the business and that they have suffered XX amount in damages because of it. And even then, their case is shaky.