Loading ...
Initially, they hired outside law firms to evaluate every document for relevance, but this had two significant drawbacks. First, it was very expensive. Second, it consumed a great deal of senior management time.
The next step was to employ technology in two forms. The first was E-Mail archiving systems while the second was various types of search engines. The E-Mail archiving systems worked very well with regard to efficient use of storage and ease of retrieving needed documents and proving that the documents weren’t modified. In addition, they helped enforce the company’s record disposal policy. Such a policy can potentially provide a company with legal cover for destroyed documents provided it is followed with out exception and does not occur to relevant documents after a company becomes aware of a potential lawsuit.(again, I’m not a lawyer.)
So if these systems work fairly well and I have a company records management policy, what’s the problem?
Even with the above, there are still significant problems. The first is that electronically discoverable information is not limited to E-Mail. It could be spreadsheets, instant messages, or even voice mail. Many company information management policies don’t cover these and have no way to enforce it if they do. Second, a company must decide what is
