In Case You Missed It (April 14 – April 20, 2008)

News stories from the week of April 14, 2008 that piqued our interest:

N.C. Newspapers Sue Governor Easley

Raleigh Chronicle, April 14, 2008

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley found himself in some hot water last week when several media outlets sued the official, claiming that his administration told state employees to delete e-mails daily, contrary to the state’s public records policy. The suit, filed April 14, named the Raleigh News & Observer, Associated Press and the NC Press Association, among others, as plaintiffs. The media companies are seeking an injunction against Easley and his staff to end any policy that is “in violation of the public records law.” The suit also seeks an order to require state officials to attempt to retrieve any emails or other records that were deleted in violation of the law.

Easley and his staff have come under fire recently for allegedly destroying emails and other documents considered to be public records. Some state agencies, including the Dept. of Transportation, have stated email retention policies that appear to be in direct violation of state records retention laws. According to WRAL-TV, Easley has appointed a committee to review state policies for handling e-mails and text messages but noted that he trusts state employees to delete only frivolous e-mails. Easley also stated that his office receives about 900,000 e-mails per weekday and retention of all e-mails would be cost prohibitive and time-consuming. The debate over e-mail retention is one we’ve been seeing a lot of recently and situations like the one in North Carolina bring to the forefront the need for all organizations, public and private, to have a comprehensive and well-defined e-mail retention policy.

Don’t Be Surprised by E-Discovery

Federal Computer Week, April 14, 2008

E-discovery can be an overwhelming topic for many so we were happy to see this Federal Computer Week article by John Moore, providing five tips for e-discovery compliance. Here are Moore’s five tips for those developing an e-discovery storage strategy:

1. Build a governance structure – A good e-discovery strategy requires participation from lawyers, records managers, IT managers and the business community. Have all four of these parties sit down and hash out a plan together.
2. Seek management sponsorship – Get an executive or legal “sponsor” to help make sure e-discovery initiatives are being discussed and followed.
3. Inventory and organize your data – Establish a taxonomy and create metadata tags for electronic information to help expedite the search and retrieval proves.
4. Deploy technology and avoid user impact – Implement a unified archiving technology and make sure end users receive individualized attention to ensure a smooth deployment.
5. Don’t forget post-litigation data – Do not delete all information once it achieves retention maturity. Some records used in litigation will need to be kept permanently and some will have other retention requirements so make sure any records used in litigation are handled appropriately.

While these five tips are a nice starting point for organizations looking to develop an e-discovery strategy, we’d like everyone to keep in mind that an organization’s e-discovery strategy is only as good as its authentication measure. The most comprehensive retention plan will go to waste if the authenticity of e-mails is challenged and your organization is forced to scramble for a solution.

Record-Keeping Bill Is Criticized As 'Anemic' by Watchdog Group

Washington Post, April 17, 2008

This articles discusses the recent bill that House Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, introduced to “strengthen and modernize electronic record-keeping requirements” in the wake of an e-mail preservation controversy surrounding the White House and federal agencies. The bill, H.R. 5811, directs the National Archives and Records Administration to set standards for capturing, managing, retrieving and preserving White House electronic communications, including e-mails. The bill also states that the National Archives must issue regulations within 18 months requiring federal agencies to preserve electronic communications in electronic format and to comply with this regulation within four years.

According to the Post, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has called the proposed legislation “anemic” and states that it “fails to make the substantial changes necessary to bring the federal government into the 21st century.” CREW argued in a 42-page report that the bill provides only general guidelines for agencies and amounts to little more than a “print-and-save policy.” As we’ve seen, electronic records management is receiving a lot of attention at the federal level lately and we have a feeling that hhe debate over email retention in government is far from over.

Posted by Jennifer on April 22, 2008 at 05:58 PM
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