Tax Firm Mostly Prevails in Ex-Employee Unauthorized Access Suit

A Tampa-based tax service won large swaths of its lawsuit against a fired account executive, alleging computer fraud, defamation and privacy violations.

Magistrate Judge Natalie Hirt Adams of the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted summary judgment for the business, ERTC Express LLC on three of five claims lodged against its ex-employee, Derrick Lee Williams, finding ERTC had shown proof Williams accessed protected company information without authorization, in violation of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

But Adams denied summary judgment to the company on claimed damages from the incident.

ERTC Express, which helps companies ...