 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
During the early stages of litigation, parties are required to turn over relevant documents to the opposing side or answer questions about those documents. This discovery phase of the litigation is crucial. It enables the parties to determine the strength of their relative positions and develop litigation strategies.
Now, under rules recently adopted by the US Supreme Court, parties to a lawsuit are required to discuss the disclosure of electronically stored information, such as e-mails, during discovery. In fact, the rules actually require parties to discuss this disclosure and discovery in the planning stages of discovery.
These new rules are supported by technology that can easily scan millions of e-mails, and their attachments, to find any relevant documents. Once they've been created, those electronic documents and e-mails are, for most purposes, permanent records. "Deleting" them does not erase them. In most cases, the document was saved or backed up in another location prior to the deletion. Also, in many cases it is a simple procedure to "restore" deleted documents.
Now that you are aware that your organizations' or employees' e-mails will most likely be reviewed during any litigation, and that deleting problematic e-mails will not erase them, what's next? You must ask yourself if it is possible that your employees have sent e-mails that you would not want made public or revealed in court. If you are honest, the answer is, "Yes, of course it is possible." A flip e-mail to a colleague, a misaddressed e-mail, a potentially discriminatory joke or a careless comment about a confidential situation could easily be lurking on your server, or on the recipients' servers. The best defense against such a situation is a good offense - train your employees on proper workplace e-mail practices to reduce the likelihood that inappropriate e-mails will be sent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
