I have several cases that need cracking. A couple of employment cases that have employers who are inattentive to the case or who have bad memories. Either way, these defendants are not producing much information, and I know that there is more than has been produced, especially emails. Emails have become the primary internal means of communication; when you request information from a company and no emails come back, something is wrong. For what it’s worth: If you end up in a lawsuit, you should count on your emails being fair-game.
If you are a party to a lawsuit, you will be required to produce emails that are relevant as well as other electronic files, and searching and retrieving this data can be time consuming. Getting this information produced by another party can also be expensive. Also, deleting electronic files will not solve the problem of a tell-tale email. Deleted information can be retrieved: And deleting it may be destroying evidence, and get you into more trouble than the content of the email.
I had one case where my clients were required to allow the Defendant’s expert to take a mirror image of their hard drive and search for relevant documents and emails. These are becoming more common. And, Facebook, My Space and Twitter are also becoming stomping grounds for lawyers looking for evidence. And don’t forget about cell phone records and text messages.
Technology is truly amazing. Connections are constantly being established and conversations are popping up everywhere about everything. But, many of these connections and conversation leave an e-trail, some of which lead to liability. Good lawyers must understand technology, its capabilities as well as trends. However, good clients need to understand their own systems, habits, practices and vulnerabilities. The next case cracked could be your own.
