Can I sue someone for deleting files from my online storage?

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Can I sue someone for deleting files from my online storage?

I was let go from my previous employer several months ago and one employee who is in charge of computers wnet into my Google
Drive and deleted several of my personal files and some of my back-ups of work that I did as a graphic designer.

Asked on March 1, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Utah

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 8 years ago | Contributor

If that was your employer's Google drive, then no: they had the write to control, delete, etc. anything on it.
If it was your personal drive, then yes, but you can only recover the actual cost/monetary value of the files, not for the inconvenience, not for the time it took you to create them, etc. So unless you either 1) paid for the files (in which case you can recover that cost) or 2) created them for other clients and have not yet been paid for them, so you can recover what you'd would have been paid, had you been able to complete and provide the work, there is nothing you can effectively sue for. Again, time and inconvenience, with a direct monetary value, are not compensible.


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