Not necessarily. Blackberry servers and the like don't usually keep any mail on them after it's been forwarded. They just provide a conduit between the exchange server and the Internet access to the cellular wireless network. It comes in and goes out without being stored permanently.
If she had a Blackberry, I see options.
First of all, the local server at her office may not save the content of her emails, but it should log date/time/recipient of emails - and all of her recipients’ computers could be searched.
But also all of the Blackberry traffic goes through RIM’s (or whatever the name is now) servers in Canada. There is the same opportunity for logging there. And, twice I had to wipe my OS from my Blackberry...after re-install, over a period of hours my personalized settings all came back. I assume info on my Blackberry had been saved on RIM’s server and automatically retrieved. Seems there is a chance emails were saved there too.
And if she’s got an Android (smart phone), good grief. In order to use the thing for anything useful, you have to set up a Google Store account...and once that’s done, I guarantee Google has at very least data-mined every email...and probably saved them all...no GMAIL account required.
It just boggles my mind that somebody who was genuinely looking for an electronic trail could not find anything.
And it boggles my mind that the IRS is apparently not bound by the same rules of civil procedure that the rest of us are? In the civilian world, you don’t just have to save the email...you have to save emails in a specific manner that makes them searchable. But the IRS can just delete the backup tape....after 6 months? I really just can’t believe that.
they have some of lerners blackberry emails from right after her drive crashed