Leading Whistleblower Attorneys Present Webinar on Federal Employee Rights under Privacy Act

On February 20, National Whistleblower Center (NWC) hosted a free webinar called Knowing Your Rights as a Federal Employee: Special Privacy Act Webinar which is now available to watch for free.

The webinar was presented by Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto founding partners, and co-founders of NWC, Stephen M. Kohn and David Colapinto. Having represented federal employee whistleblowers since the 1980s, Kohn and Colapinto are leading experts on the legal avenues available for federal employees seeking protection and relief.

The webinar focuses on the Privacy Act, outlining what federal employees and contractors need to know about their rights under the Privacy Act and how they can use the law to obtain protection, information, and relief.

The law provides all persons, including federal employees, the right to file a lawsuit in federal court to obtain access to their files and seek damages for the actual harm caused by any leaks or violations of the law. A court can also order an agency to correct information in government files that are inaccurate and prevent agencies from maintaining information in violation of law. Persons who filed successful Privacy Act complaints are entitled to attorney fees and costs related to their lawsuit. 

Thus, the Privacy Act offers numerous potential avenues for a whistleblower to use those provisions to obtain protection, information, and relief. For example, as in the Linda Tripp case, when the federal government leaked information covered under the Privacy Act to discredit her, Tripp successfully pursued a Privacy Act for damages and fees. She could attack the illegal retaliation caused by the leak of information through the Privacy Act, and avoid the many limitations of the Whistleblower Protection Act.

The full webinar is available to watch.