Posted on 12/01/2006 1:50:25 AM PST by xtinct
U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say. The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.
The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation.
James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co., said that large companies are likely to face higher costs from organizing their data to comply with the rules. In addition to e-mail, companies will need to know about things more difficult to track, like digital photos of work sites on employee cell phones and information on removable memory cards, he said.
Both federal and state courts have increasingly been requiring the production of relevant electronic documents during discovery, but the new rules codify the practice, legal experts said.
Mine already are by law ... the NASD. In fact they are regularly screened. The last batch they perused had many photos of the Big Tsunami.
Screen Saver for Work!
So this is not for ALL companies, just those involved with Federal Litagation?
The place where I contract (a major financial services/credit card provider/banking company) already does this. They recently centralized their mail handling by removing the capability for employees to create "personal folders" in Outlook (which are created on your particular machine). All email is now stored on their servers, centrally, where it can be immediately retrieved and searched when needed. They've also instituted new rules about what to do in the event of a lawsuit, and how long to retain emails otherwise. It's no different than having to retain paper copies of documents for a certain length of time.
}:-)4
Yes. Mostly financial institutions but generally any company big enough to potentially be the subject of SEC or anti-trust types of litigation, IMHO.
It is different than existing rules in that it codifies the amount of time you have to produce relevant documents. You must index the proverbial needle in a haystack without really knowing what the needle will be -- or the haystack, for that matter.
This article seems to be saying that the Supreme Court has decreed this? That is interesting. Does this mean that any company even potentially involved in federal litigation are also now subject to these Supreme Court "Rules for Retention"?
The securities industry already is required by law (not just Supreme Court fiat) to do such retention with client communications (and in practice, I believe that most securities companies do so with all employee communications), and such archiving certainly isn't free.
AP = Al queda Press
Mine too...big computer company and been doing it for years. Mostly to protect ourselves.
So I am ALWAYS very careful about what and how I say it.
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