No, but the employer is and there being access to data by a person that shouldn't under HIPAA (you) could be a violation.
Dude call her give her the password and get on with your life. You are well past the point of sounding pathetic.
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That is about the most Ludacris post I have witnessed you make.
Well you are so overreaching on HIPAA as to suggest that OP is in some violation of the law. He is not an employee to the company. And not disclosing a password to a workstation has absolutely nothing to do with disclosing medical records.
You need to learn to read. I said, "No, but the employer is...".
Having a nonauthorized person that can access a computer with protected records IS a violation of HIPAA.
And while the OP won't have a legal problem re:HIPAA he is going to look like an idiot in divorce court when the wife brings all this up.
OP doesn't have access to the network of his wife's company so what is the issue you are trying to make? His divorce proceedings have nothing to do with this shi*t about the password.
He has greater access than his wife. And you are nuts if you don't think a judge in a divorce will take crap like this into account. Even if it just pulls weight from the OP's argument because the judge realizes how petty he is.
It really comes down to the OP gains nothing by not giving her the password and does stand a chance, no matter how small a chance, of losing something.
A local employment-specialist lawyer specifically consulted about this suggested that something as simple as a password could maybe open up liability for me. She didn't cite which law, but I'm not taking the risk. I thought I had a slam dunk on this but if not, then it will just come off as petty. Forget it.
I've been wondering why this thread has been kept alive so long so I read back over all the posts and just have a few brief comments:
1 - This is not a labor law issue and never has been. You ought to understand that by now based on the labor related comments.
2 - Your opinion on the morality of your wife's behavior is completely irrelevant. This is a divorce. The equitable distribution has nothing to do with morality. That your wife is taking the food out of the mouths of your children (hyperbole intentional) has no bearing on the eventual financial solution.
3 - There is no threaten to sue, there is only sue or not sue. Until you are served a summons and complaint, it's all hot air.
4 - You'll forgive me for this blunt observation but you appear to be significantly PWd by this woman, now and in the past. You shouldn't be having any contact with her at all. You have a lawyer, that's he he's getting paid for. From now on if she wants to talk to the kids, fine. Anything else, refer her to your lawyer and learn to hang up on her if you have to.
5 - As to devaluation of the company your lawyer can, at some point, ask the court to order an audit by a forensic account. If there was any hanky panky on her part the audit will turn it up and the court will impute value to the business.
6 - Take the high road and give her the password, and only the password, and cease all business related communications (as I recommended in item 4). Anything else is the hot air I mentioned in item 3.
I am grateful to you all for your contributions and opposing opinions that have been very educational and enlightening and extremely helpful in my particular situation. At this point, we have managed to remove any potential labor law aspect to our divorce so now everything can be handled properly in family court. If anything else comes up I need to ask about, I will do so in the appropriate forum. Thanks again.
Glad you got that worked out.
An update on this old story, I'll first remind everybody my wife kept insisting this was a separate labor law issue that had nothing to do with the marital issue and threatened to take me to labor law court over it.
Now, in her claim of Extreme Cruelty, which she only filed in retaliation for our legitimate Adultery claim for divorce, she cited passwordgate as one of the examples and phrased it to suggest she never received the password from me in the end. The side of "just give it to her" seem vindicated now, but mostly because she's a liar and a hypocrite and it was more for avoiding future problems. Also, I opine that firing me in violation of marital status quo and agreements made in mediation is far more extremely cruel than anything about a password that she DID get.
Well anyway, I thought it was important to understand what kind of person we were discussing here, and admittedly I'm probably looking for some external validation to help me feel I'm fighting for the right things here, but this is just a punctuation mark on what continues to be a long drawn out tragedy and not a request for legal advice at this point. Please enjoy your day.
You might wan to look back on one of my posts in this thread I believed I warned that withholding the passwords might bite you in the ass in the divorce.