E-Discovery Bytes : E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney : Quarles & Brady Law Firm : Electronic Discovery, Data Preservation, Conversion, Computer Forensics

Did you know that, before paper money was used, Americans used animal hides, or buckskins, for money?  This is the origin of the slang term "bucks." If you want to help your company keep more of their “bucks” as well as their “hide” in 2009, urge them to review and comply with their existing document retention policy.

Jerome Wendt on the StorageChannel.com’s blog revisited some lessons from the past, which remain relevant for the new year. Wendt’s blog discussed the 2002 case of Murphy Oil USA, Inc. v. Fluor Daniel, Inc. (2002 WL 246439, E.D. La. Feb. 19, 2002). Fluor Daniel had an email retention policy that allowed them to erase backup tapes after 45 days, but neglected to follow their own policy…resulting in the unintended preservation of 93 backup tapes, some of which contained damaging information. The Court ordered Fluor Daniel to produce email from one of these backup tapes. Fluor Daniel could have avoided an unfavorable court decision and the costs associated with producing certain incriminating evidence had it only complied with its own document retention policy. 

The beginning of a new year should be seized as an opportunity to ensure that your company is complying with its existing document retention policy.  This is an excellent first step to saving more than a few bucks and protecting your hide as well. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The challenge of complying with e-discovery rules was illustrated in the results of two surveys released recently. A survey from Robert Half Legal, (a company specializing in attorney recruitment and placement) found that one in four lawyers in North America believe that e-discovery will have the single largest impact on the practice of law in the next five years. Why? According to Charles Volkert, Executive Director of Robert Half Legal, "the complexity and cost of the task, coupled with the associated information technology and human resource needs, make [e-discovery] a challenge."

Similarly, a survey published in eWeek.com  found that two-thirds of U.S. businesses are generally ignoring the issue of e-discovery.  According to the survey's author Michael Osterman, the companies, "are either ignoring the new federal mandates for compliance and e-discovery or are clearly not well educated on how to meet the technical requirements."

The results of these two surveys, at first glance appear somewhat contradictory. Are the majority of companies really ignoring the legal issue expected to have the largest impact in the near future? However, both surveys seem to point to the same problem, a lack of clarity in many companies on how to effectively and efficiently comply with e-discovery rules. 

The survey conducted by Robert Half indicates that e-discovery is expected to have such a large impact because of the complexity and expense of compliance. Likewise, in discussing the results of the survey in eWeek, Michael Osterman, stated that many companies are still unclear on the concept of e-discovery in general. "There really is no consensus yet on whether a company should keep all its e-mail and other docs, or whether a company should keep a finite number of years' worth of data, or whether it should keep more than 30 days' worth of data."

Time will tell whether e-discovery will be the largest issue facing the practice of law in the U.S. However, the actual impact will likely largely be effected by the current corporate response to e-discovery rules.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link