Email archiving not all for eDiscovery

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Wednesday, September 15, 2010) | Category : eDiscovery

A report recently released by Information-Management.com found companies reliant upon eDiscovery must understand that implementing an email archiving solution, while important, is not the only step necessary to ensure eDiscovery processes are entirely successful.

While email will likely be the source for the majority of the information asked for in any legal discovery request, correspondence on social media and other Web 2.0 technology is equally important. Some archiving experts believe social media may not be worth saving, but others still maintain it can provide crucial evidence in any number of legal cases.

Similarly, some organizations rely too heavily on technology when carrying out eDiscovery processes. According to the news provider, it's critical that law firms and corporate legal departments explicity lay out their policies for all employees - especially those who produce substantial email.

Still, the future of eDiscovery is under intense debate in terms of which messages can be included. The National Archives and Records Administration recently reported social media can be deleted by companies as long as they express their retention policies clearly on their website or any other organizational medium.