keeping e-mails is now a must

[mushroom]

The $1.45 billion judgement against Morgan Stanley for deceiving billionaire Ronald Perelman over a business deal has a lesson all companies should learn -- keeping e-mails is now a must, experts say.

Banks and broker-dealers are obliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents for three years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. But similar requirements will apply to all public companies from July 2006 under the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform measures.

At the same time, U.S. courts are imposing increasingly harsh punishments on corporations that fail to comply with orders to produce e-mail documents, the experts said.

Where judges once were more likely to accept that incompetence or computer problems might be to blame, they are now apt to rule that noncompliance is an indication a company has something to hide.

"Morgan Stanley is going to be a harbinger," said Bill Lyons, chief executive officer of AXS-One Inc. (AXO.A: Quote, Profile, Research), a provider of records retention software systems.
The rest: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-05-20T164453Z_01_EIC060235_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-FINANCIAL-MORGANSTANLEY-PERELMAN-EMAILS.XML

[Smyrl]

Just today had to go back through e-mails to show when I put certain info online. E-mail showed when I received request and what person making request viewed page.

Shannon

[fryman]

I'm so glad I have gmail... haven't deleted a single email since I got my account.

[ziandra]

I bet this is going to change a few things. Intel had a corporate "no packrat" policy. Email had a very short retention on the server. It seems that every time someone sued them they got the judge to force them to turn over every single email sent from any employee to any other employee for the past umpteen years that might even remotely apply to the case to them to be "analyzed" as part of due process. It was costing them a fortune to go through all the archives to comply with the court orders. So they adoped a policy of never backing up the email server and purging everything after a very short period of time. I guess the number of times they lost cases because they did not have proof was paled by the money they saved by not having to produce all that garbage on demand.

[flawebworks]

I've got email saved from 1996......
I don't keep my tax returns that long.

[Dirkjan]

I got my own dedicated server, and kept all my email of the past 3-4 years, organised them into maps, often search for them with Google Desktop, and need old email daily.

[rhinoplayer]

The Supreme Court commented 2 weeks ago in regards to the Arthur Andersen (my former employer :() case that email and other documents do not need to be retained if it is part of a written policy and carried out uniformly ~ but the company still got screwed because they followed their own policy and the Supreme Court was only able to rule after the company discontinued operations!

[Will.Spencer]

I think the lesson here is that e-mail must be deleted immediately. :D

[minstrel]

I think the lesson here is that e-mail must be deleted immediately.
Yes. Don't even pause long enough to read it. Especially if you have Google desktop or the Google Toolbar installed. Everyone knows that Google is reading and hoarding everything on your computer these days, even your bookmarks. :rolleyes:

[jlerner]

Yes. Don't even pause long enough to read it. Especially if you have Google desktop or the Google Toolbar installed. Everyone knows that Google is reading and hoarding everything on your computer these days, even your bookmarks. :rolleyes:


Hmm, That would explain why my bookmarks are nothing but Adwords...

[oalhajjar]

Even from a business standpoint it pays to keep an archive of old/deleted emails. Sometimes you never know when you need to dig out an old message that's got an important contact... happened to me today!