The E-Discovery Trap
"Until a few years ago, businesses had to make a conscious decision to keep documents. Once you determined that various records might be useful or needed in the future, they were saved, labeled and stored. With the advent and expansion of email and other computer functions, the opposite has occurred. E-documents are forever, unless you make a conscious decision to destroy them completely. ( As most of us now know, simply hitting Delete usually leaves emails, etc. on your hard-drive, where a good forensic IT professional can find and restore them)...
In the event of litigation on any subject, all the items in your computer system that may have anything to do with that subject become relevant and discoverable. Costs associated with producing them can be huge...
Fortunately, courts are starting to recognize that companies do not have to, and cannot afford to, keep all their e-data forever, and both judges' opinions and proposed new rules are starting to provide "safe harbors" for companies who destroy old e-data pursuant to a properly constructed e-document retention policy. Taking steps now to put such a policy in place, with the help of competent legal counsel and IT professionals, and then making sure you implement it, can save you much expense and grief in the future..."
Read more in this article from FindLaw's Modern Practice.
