Non-compliance with the newly established electronic discovery rules in the United States can result in massive fines to the tune of millions of dollars. According to the new federal rules of civil procedure relating to e-discovery, executed by the Supreme Court's Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States, companies need to talk about and decide the kind of records that can be presented and what cannot, in the event of a lawsuit.
The federal rules of civil procedure electronic discovery state that companies should meet within thirty days within the filing of a case to decide how they will manage the situation of electronic data. A discussion of data retention practices, the required records and format of records to be produced, must take place.
There are instances where companies failed to abide by the rules and subsequently paid up a big fine. Morgan Stanley, for instance, had to pay $15 billion for not preserving information. While it paid half of this amount in punitive damages, the fact remains that the fine is a big one.
These new rules require the company to be fully informed as far as data kind and data storage location are concerned. A policy outlining the time span for which the data will be preserved, when it will be flushed out, and where it will be stored, must be in effect. This policy should be proven to the court with documents giving orders to the IT department for both recording data and eventually deleting it. The policy must also have been in force before a court order asking for this information. It is not sufficient to enact these practices after a court questions your electronic discovery policies. Just saying that unearthing the information is too difficult a job or a very expensive proposition will not let you off the hook.
While email evidence has been used by courts for many years now, the new rules include Word documents, spreadsheets, database information, sound files and image files. Another positive point that bodes well for the future is the inclusion of newly originating electronic data. The essential information must be provided within a time frame of 120 days, failing which all other electronic evidence for the civil suit will not be permissible. You may also have to shell out a fine should you fail to provide this evidence. Electronic discovery rules have redefined the way civil lawsuits and electronically stored data are implemented.