Slashdot Mirror
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."
It also benefits companys that make backup media.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Now, Friday morning, we got an e-mail saying that that has changed. That now we're supposed to keep e-mails but it didn't really say for how long. Plus it was Friday morning and an e-mail about a change in company policy was pretty high on my list of things to ignore. I'd imagine that our corporate policy is going to change to something vague and undefinable about under what circumstances you're supposed to archive it. And if a case comes up and my company is called on this Federal law that requires them to keep e-mails, it will now be the employee's fault since this e-mail was very applicable to a future case but they failed to archive it. What does that encourage me to do? Keep all my e-mails regardless of any policy.
If the e-mail says you're supposed to keep e-mails but doesn't specifiy a date, then they probably want them to be kept in perpetuity.