IT, legal and business decision-makers must work together to develop formal electronic content retention policies to reduce litigation and regulatory risks, while enhancing end-user productivity. Some of the factors driving the demand for electronic content retention include legal discovery and regulatory obligations in addition to organizational data mining and knowledge management. LEGAL DISCOVERY Nearly all business organizations eventually become implicated in lawsuits, either as a plaintiff, a defendant or as an involved third party. According to a survey on litigation trends conducted in 2009 by the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, 83% of US companies surveyed had at least one lawsuit commenced against them, while 43% initiated at least one lawsuit. Consequently, the likelihood of facing an e-discovery request is very high.
When a lawsuit occurs, an organization has an affirmative duty under the FRCP to preserve relevant evidence. This duty to preserve generally attaches when a party knows, or reasonably should have known, that material in its possession may be relevant to potential litigation. When a litigation hold on data is required, it is imperative that an organization preserve all relevant data, such as all email sent from senior managers to specific individuals or clients, word processing documents that may contain corporate policy statements, and so forth. Severe consequences can result from failure to preserve potentially relevant evidence. Courts have discretion to impose a variety of sanctions, including fines, additional costs for third parties to review or search for data, or even criminal charges. At a minimum, an organization that cannot produce data when required will suffer a damaged corporate reputation.
By Guest Blogger: C2C Systems
