On 5/31/05, Chris Ranch <CRanch@affinity.com> wrote:
Looks like they want us to turn over customer info without the subpoena, but simply with a phone call (or whatever) from an investigator. I would hope that would be just for specific accounts, and not the entire customer list. In any event, now we're going to have to at least confirm the investigator's identity, whereas currently the sub carries sufficient authority.
Ugh.. Ok, so it's a "Hi, I'm an FBI Agent. Gimme info on Joe Blow and Mary Jane" and I'm supposed to jump and give out that info... No questions asked... I'm not so opposed to the "don't tell anyone" part. When we receive a subpeona for a criminal case (as opposed to a civil case), the subpeona usually states that the subpeona and information being requested can't be discussed by anyone. Whereas a civil case allows us to tell the customer if we want to. My problem would be the handing over of information to what is essentially an unknown party.. That wonderful law would allow a terrorist or other crook to impersonate an investigator and gather information..
I don't think you meant to say 'without any specific criminal charges having been filed', as subpoena'd evidence leads to charges.
Well, the few instances I've had to deal with this, the subpeona was for a specific case, so I would guess from that information that charges had been filed... I'm not a lawyer and I don't even pretend to understand fully how the whole system works, so I'm probably wrong.. :)
Chris Ranch Affinity Internet, Inc.
-- Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold XenoPhage0@gmail.com