Don’t Hit That 'Delete' Button!

In response to new federal rules mandating organizations retain their electronic documents, districts are using outside providers to archive their in-house e-mails.

ON DEC. 1, 2006, the once ambiguous role of e-mails in court cases became much more clear. On that day, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern federal civil litigation, were amended to establish standards for the discovery of electronically stored information, now known as e-discovery.

"The FRCP now treats electronic documents no differently from paper-based documents," explains John LoPorto, executive vice president of sales and marketing for electronic archiving and security provider Privacy Networks. So should corporations, organizations, or schools ever have to participate in a court case involving federal violations such as copyright infringement, sexual harassment, unsafe work environments, or fraud, their e-mails will be considered as possible evidence. "Hence the need to save e-mail," says LoPorto. "In 2007 and 2008, industry associations [in all markets] started educating their members on what they had to do to comply with the new FRCP."

Many corporations began moving quickly to implement comprehensive e-mail archiving solutions to comply with the new rules, as well as federal statutes such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which also include language that instructs organizations about e-mail retention. K-12 schools, however, have been slower to act, partly because they don't have to comply with as many of the same federal regulations as their corporate counterparts, and partly because of perceived increases in the cost and workload associated with these archiving solutions.

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Source: thejournal.com
By: Charlene O'Hanlon