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New E-Discovery Rules Benefit Some Firms
The new E-discovery rules that came into effect last Friday — clarifying federal requirements about producing electronic documents as evidence in lawsuits — may make life harder for some companies, but they will benefit others. mikesd81 writes to mention an AP article profiling companies that help businesses track and search their e-mails and other electronic data. From the article: "There are hundreds of 'e-discovery vendors' and these businesses raked in approximately $1.6 billion in 2006... That figure could double in 2007."
I haven't read through all the new rules, but everything I've read about them say they kick in at the discovery stage of litigation. Presumably the traditional rules regarding document retention policies are still in place (if someone who has read them all knows differently, please say so). Under the regular rules Courts generally will allow you to have document retention policies, and get rid of old stuff. What you're supposed to do is whenever you have a reasonable belief that you may be sued over something, you're supposed to at that point make sure to keep whatever documents might be requested in the litigation.
I work right now on a such project for a very big company. It's crazy, but this e-discovery email/data holding is a very complex application. We are(or suppose to be) near completion, but we are yet to see the details. Our big problem are the lawyers , they change their minds and alter the specs ofter than a baby his diapers. It's quite a hell to do automated tests. FYI, we are using the compliance software from aungate ( http://aungate.com/content/pathways/litigation/ ).