RubberBuzz || Akron Unleashed: Keepin' My E-mail

6.06.2005

Keepin' My E-mail

I wonder if Michael Jackson had to turn over all his personal e-mails, IMs and iPod? I can just imagine the court scrolling through MJ's iPod and looking at all of the children's songs on it. Or his e-mails filled with simple sentences and monosyllabic words.

More and more, the courts are ordering businesses to turn over instant messages, e-mails and computerized memos as evidence in disputes, including workplace lawsuits. Anything is fair game in electronic discovery -- even the records stored on an employee's home computer, his PDA, his cell phone, his laptop, his iPod.

It's not unusual for a company of any size to hear: Produce every e-mail sent between December 2002 and July 2004 that mentions the name "Mary Jones."

Companies that can't cough up those messages could be subject to hefty fines or worse -- accusations of destroying or hiding evidence. In some cases, those accusations have led juries to set punitive damages in the millions of dollars.

Just for the record, we save all our e-mails, but still, please don't sue us.

The BJ :: Virtual evidence

(joe :: Keepin' My E-mail)

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