Before You Send That Email...
Tue Dec 5, 2006 5:33AM EST
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How many times has an email sent in haste come back to haunt you? Well, it could get a whole lot worse: On Friday the Supreme Court approved a new law that requires companies to keep track of, well, everything employees produce electronically: email, documents, and even instant messages and voice mail, in the event a lawsuit is filed.
The idea: If someone needs to sue your company, you need to be able to provide any incriminating emails for evidence.
The rules do have some limitations: They apply only to federal litigation and generally come into play only after a lawsuit has been filed.
The rules are set to create massive headaches for companies not accustomed to archiving things like old emails. In fact, many companies routinely delete messages after 90 days and even make that a corporate policy that messages are not retained any longer than that. But with lawsuits dragging out for years, those rules will be superceded by the federal law. Also note that it doesn't matter how small your company is. Any entity brought before federal court is required to maintain the information.
Now the strange thing here is that the law does not state you have to maintain this information all the time. You only have to be able to produce it if you get brought before a federal court. So if you're routinely deleting info, you'll have to be able to turn on a dime in the event a suit is filed. (Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so please consult with counsel before you decide to flaunt the new law.)
Still, it's all very troubling to me. Archiving email and IM is bad. Can the requirement to archive telephone calls (as VoIP makes this easier) be far behind?
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2 Posted by mdntrdro41 on Tue Dec 5, 2006 1:39PM EST Report Abuse
I routinely archive all old e-mails but there is a catch. I always try to pick who's folder the e-mail is best suited for. Many times there are multiple recipients and the subject matter may be best suited for one person or another for me to make that the decision. I can't for the life of me imagine how any attorney could spend hours digging through my archives to find the pertinent data they are looking for. It's my system and it would take me that long to find something if it were from last year. I am sure everyone else in the company has there own way of filing things as well. So multiply all the archives times all the employees in a large size company of say 2000 employees and you can see just how ridiculous this rule becomes. I say only enforce it on congress and then see how long they want to keep it. Jeff T. from Florida
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3 Posted by mcscott_2000 on Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:41AM EST Report Abuse
Ok, let's lower the hysteria. You are not required to keep all electronic data forever. In fact, the new FRCP makes more sense. This article is akin to a headline screaming "Drinking is healthy" but misses the story that a small glass of red wine is what is mentioned. First, what they're really trying to codify is making companies publish a policy and schedule for what information is retained and for how long. You are not expected to retain everything forever. The new rules are discussing how to best frame electronic discovery requests, who shares the cost burdens, that kind of stuff. So, if your company does not have a policy and retention schedule, get one. Hire a records consultant to work with your legal department or outside counsel and protect yourself. Have a policy and standard and work under it. You look worse if you don't have procedures, like backing up servers and just do it ad hoc. If a discovery request does come in, you need to be able to systematically put a hold on all data destruction. The rules are designed to prevent another Enron, where there were retention schedules, obviously ignored, and destruction and spoliage took place. Ask anyone who had their retirement funds invested with Enron or Worldcom if they think these are unfair practices.
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4 Posted by nonstopguru on Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:09PM EST Report Abuse
Retention of electronic is highly possible. As a computer consultant for over 15 years, banking, financial business systems backup data to tape every day or every week and have retention on that data for years just in case it is necessary to review it. As far as a company is concerned retention of electronic data not only supports their cause, but also protects them against fraudulent lawsuits as well. Data storage is much cheaper in the long run. We live in a era where everything is recorded, it is similar to the days when storage was done on paper. I would think that most would agree that storage of electronic data is a good thing, unless a person or organization is hiding details.
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5 Posted by tko_delta on Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:30PM EST Report Abuse
I personally do not see this as a bad thing. This will help protect alot of people. I keep a record of every e-mail and IM I partake in while at work for my own protection. Countless times blame has been tried to be placed on me or my group. At which point I refer to my records of emails or IMs that state we are in the right. I am contracted out from one company to several banks and deal with backing up their servers on an hourly basis. When dealing with other peoples money like I do, Im glad I have everything recorded. Its to cover my own tail so to speak. Why would people deem this as bad? Its not telling you to keep records of your personal life. Are you really worried about people seeing what you wrote in a buisness email? Were you ingaging in acts you knew were not appropriate at work for email and/or IMs? You are being paid to do what someone else wants you to do. Do your personal stuff on your own time and you would quickly see this isnt a big deal. Infact, I see it as beneficial to most people out there.
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1 Posted by jeffo3697 on Tue Dec 5, 2006 8:42AM EST Report Abuse
I think that it is rediculous to expect a company to retain email, IM, ect.. indefinatley, just in case a law suit comes down the road. My company alone recieves\sends almost a million emails a day! It is an undue burdon to expect companies to retain that much info for an unspecified amount of time. We delete emails after 45 days, I think that is long enough.