E-MAIL: firms need permission to read employees' messages.

Firms' snoop scare.

Lawyers have warned that law firms themselves must review their e-mail processes following the introduction of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act last week.The Act gives employees the right to sue when their communications are wrongly intercepted.

If employers read employees' e-mails, record customer telephone calls, or undertake any other form of 'interception' activity, they could face liability unless they have 'lawful authority'- for RIP purposes - to undertake the activity.

Robert Carolina, a partner in the technology and communications group at City IT law firm Tarlo Lyons, said: 'This is not yet a tried and tested law, and it is unclear from RIP what constitutes reasonable grounds for believing that consent has been given.'

Pauline McArdle, a partner in the employment and pensions department of City firm Denton Wilde Sapte, explained that the draft data protection commissionaire's code, released in October, was stricter on employers than the Act's regulations.

She said practitioners must now wait until the final code is issued next year for clarification as to how the new Act should be interpreted.

Ms McArdle said that, to be on the safe side, law firms and other businesses should obtain written consents from their employees on a regular basis to the reasonable interception of their e-mails.

Michael Chissick, of City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, said the burden on law firms would probably be less onerous: 'There has always been an understanding that lawyers will open employees' mail in the course of their professional duty to monitor business.'Jeremy Fleming