What's In Your Email?
How UBS Can Help You Better Meet e-Discovery Requirements! *
Christine B. Ilardi, February 2008
Poquoson, VA - February 18, 2008 - Did you know that the average company creates at least one million e-mail messages, a day?
Did you realize that over 90% of new corporate data is generated electronically, in a wide variety of formats?
What about the 36.4% of senior executives surveyed who said they have no technologies or plans in place to manage a legal discovery order involving electronic records?
How about the 33% who said they had no corporate policy in place covering electronic records in general?
Or the 20% who said they didn’t even know if they had a policy?
What you probably do know is that at one point or another, every organization will face litigation – but will you be prepared? Whether you are in the healthcare or financial field or a government locality, it is vital to realize that you are not immune. That is why it is so critical to have an electronic records management strategy in place.
Digital document management solutions, especially those with a records management component, can help your organization prepare for the inevitable burden of an e-Discovery order. With a well-developed records management policy supported by the right technology, you can turn the threat of e-Discovery from a liability into a competitive advantage.
Recent amendments approved by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) provide a new framework for conducting electronic discovery, obligating litigants to identify, preserve and collect electronically stored information (ESI) very early in a case.
The new amendments can be categorized in terms of five major e-Discovery areas:
- The definition of ESI as a separate class of discoverable information.
- The requirement for mandatory meet-and-confer sessions to address e-Discovery issues that must take place very early in the litigation process.
- The designation of “reasonably inaccessible” electronic data and rules governing its production.
- The explanation of principles relating to “claims of privilege” and “clawback agreements” in cases of inadvertent production of privileged ESI.
- The addition of protection for organizations that have inadvertently destroyed potentially discoverable records in the course of normal, “good faith” records management operations.
ESI is not just your e-mails, however. It would also include your IM chats, websites, spreadsheets, Office files and more! Basically, this means that all information is fair game, regardless of where it is located. Is that electronic discovery response plan (EDRP) starting to ring a bell, now? If not, Unity Business Systems can help with developing one.
The addition of an EDRP management team within your organization, who can identify and analyze all the media that might contain relevant data, will make it much easier to cope with e-Discovery as part of your records management procedures. To successfully cope with the burden of e-Discovery, an organization must develop consistent processes for managing, storing and deleting data. Enter the digital document management solution (or you may already have Laserfiche).
Digital document management systems protect and preserve both electronic and physical documents. Physical documents are scanned into the system and maintained in electronic form; electronic documents can be maintained in their native file formats, maintaining existing metadata and hidden information. Audit trail capability can guarantee that these documents are not deleted or modified which maintains their value in the e-Discovery process.
With over-retention being a common (and expensive) mistake many organizations make, the records management component of a digital document management system makes it easy to follow records retention and destruction policies according to standards set forth by the Department of Defense; it is a natural, smart and cost-effective addition.
While a digital document and records management application from Unity Business Systems (and Laserfiche) can’t supply all the pieces of the e-Discovery puzzle, UBS can deliver the foundation needed for the development of an enterprise-wide records management policy that will protect your organization from the threat of litigation.
Contact Unity Business Systems today!
* “Using Digital Document Management to Better Meet e-Discovery Requirements,” a Laserfiche Executive Focus white paper.
Website: www.UnitySystems.biz
Phone: 757.873.0233
Email: Joe.Kennedy@UnitySystems.biz
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Monday, September 08, 2008 
