FORT WORTH, Texas — The world's largest E-discovery firm was found by a Fort Worth jury to have violated a Texas criminal statute by accessing a woman's computer without her consent.
Consilio, which is based in Washington, D.C., was found guilty of violating Title 7, Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code, which declares accessing a computer without the owner's consent a Class B Misdemeanor.
Jurors also found Consilio negligent in downloading and destroying a decade's worth of emails. They awarded $50,000 in damages on behalf of the plaintiff, Angelyn Olson of Maine.
“I want to thank this court and this jury, because today, they truly have provided justice for Mrs. Olson,” says Dallas attorney Rob Miller of Miller Copeland in a statement, who along with Emily Copeland represents Olson. “If Consilio can do this to her, it can do it to any one of us, exposing everything we’ve ever looked at on the internet, every photograph we’ve taken or received. It’s scary. And I’m glad this jury said what Consilio did is wrong.”
Consilio was hired in a Maine case involving Olson, and as part of the legal proceedings, her lawyers allowed Consilio to search her email based on a small number of terms.
Instead of doing that, the company reportedly downloaded all of her emails over a 10-year period, including personal information and materials.
Despite written notice to secure the emails, the company destroyed them after being notified of the violation of the search agreement, Olson's lawyers argued.
The case was heard in the 17th Judicial District Court in Tarrant County. Jimmy Goff of Dallas also represented the Olsons.
