New rules compel firms to track e-mails

[madokie]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_hi_te/storing_e_mails


WASHINGTON - U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation.

James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co., said that large companies are likely to face higher costs from organizing their data to comply with the rules. In addition to e-mail, companies will need to know about things more difficult to track, like digital photos of work sites on employee cell phones and information on removable memory cards, he said.

[SoCalDem]

1. Dust off all those ole IBM-Selectrics and fire up the shredders

Companies just may go back to the "olden times" and shut down emails altogether. I would be tempted..

and employees better not ever use those machines for anything even remotely "personal"..

strange times we live in

[madokie]

2. Eight years ago if you would have told me this shit was coming down

I would have said you were crazy. This is a reminder of how fast things can go to shit here in America

[Zensea]

3. I don' think this is quite as new as the article implies

Note this quote in it

"Martha Dawson, a partner at the Seattle-based law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP who specializes in electronic discovery, said the burden of the new rules won't be that great.
Companies will not have to alter how they retain their electronic documents, she said, but will have to do an "inventory of their IT system" in order to know better where the documents are."

I can remember sifting through stacks of emails as long as 5 years ago when I was temping as a proofreader at a New York law firm doing exactly what this article describes for a court case.

Also notice that one of the people they quote in the excerpt who is worried about this is a higher up at Haliburton .... yeah, I bet they are worried about it.:)

[Maat]

4. I must have read something different.

This only applies to what will have to be produced if the company wants to prevail in a civil suit. And, they only get in trouble for not keeping records AFTER they have been sued, and that would be part of the discovery process for the individual lawsuit. There is no mandate for a company to spy on its employees here.