Attorney Requests Former Employee Info.

Debbie65

I received a phone call followed by a fax from an attorney about releasing information on a past employee of ours. Apparently, this former employee is now involved in a personal injury lawsuit and my company has been identified as a provider of health-related services to her in the past (through our company insurance plan). The employee did sign a release of employment/medical information form.

The records he has requested are: all payroll records, job assignment, training and testing records, reports of injury or illness, performance evaluations or summaries, probationary or disciplinary records, termination records, and all other records from the date of first employment to the present time AND all medical and billing records pertaining to examinations, treatments, or consultations of the employee in our possession, from the date of first employment to the present time.

Now, the request for medical records is easy. We don't have any of that information here, our insurance company maintains that information. But they do want to know the identity of any company possessing this information.

What do I do here? This really sets off alarms with me even though she has signed a release. While she was working for us she self-identified herself as Disabled - Acute Asthma/Secondary Diabetes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Gillian

Turn it over to your company attorney so that you don't inadvertently give out information that could harm you later.

Gar

I totally agree with Gillian. Who knows. Your attorney may be able to negotiate your not having to provide some of the stuff requested.

Rockie

Good advice. We don't give out any information without a subpoena and then I ask that it be served to our attorney's office to keep us out of this potentially messy "loop".

Theresa Gegen TX

On thing you need to have your attorney check is whether your state laws give the employee a right to have a copy of that information. For example, in Texas, the files belong to the employer, but in some other states, the employees have a right to inspect and copy employment records.

Good Luck!

WOCO Frank

I'm wading through a similar mess, albeit with much different details.

One of our employees (formally terminated yesterday) has been charged with brutally assaulting and nearly killing a teen prostitute - in a company vehicle, on company property, on the clock.

Obviously, since this involves criminal issues we have been pretty forthcoming with everything the prosecutor has asked of us. Unfortunately, the other side of that coin is that everything we turn over to the prosecutor will be available to the victim for her use in a possible civil suit against us later.

Of course, our attorneys have been involved from the start.

Gar

Good heavens!!! I wish you luck!