E-Discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures : A Pocket Guide

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) govern the activities of all US federal civil courts. They contain discovery requirements that any company must satisfy when it is the subject of a civil action, such as an employment discrimination lawsuit or an intellectual property dispute.FRCP UpdatedThe FRCP have been amended and updated to take account of electronic information. Attorneys can no longer just throw individual E-Discovery requests 'over the wall' to the IT department. Indeed, the pitfalls associated with E-Discovery represent one of the greatest risks that organisations face in litigation today. If a defendant fails to produce e-mail evidence when required, the courts will assume that this evidence has been wilfully destroyed or withheld.Records management professionals, IT personnel, compliance experts and general counsel all need to work together to develop a comprehensive framework for handling E-Discovery requirements.This pocket guide provides expert advice on how to build such a framework within your organisation in order to assess and to manage the risks associated with E-Discovery.Benefits to business include:Understand what the FRCP requires Any entity that is, or may be, a party to a federal civil lawsuit should be familiar with the FRCP. This pocket guide explains the FRCP and looks at how a business is expected to handle an E-Discovery request under the recent amendments to these rules.Prepare for the worst There are many situations that may result in a lawsuit, such as the dismissal of an employee or a dispute with a business partner. This pocket guide will show you what to do to ensure that in the event of court proceedings your digital information can be easily and quickly accessed.Avoid costly fines Organisations have only a limited amount of time to respond to E-Discovery requests. Failure to meet the deadline could land your organisation with a fine from the court of up to $50,000 per day. The pocket guide tells you some steps your organisation can take to ensure it has as much time as possible to fulfil an E-Discovery request, and thereby avoid costly fines.Identify areas for improvement Even if E-Discovery is an issue your organisation is already addressing, it is still useful to find out where what you currently have in place falls short of best practice. The pocket guide contains a discovery readiness assessment checklist to help IT risk management professionals pinpoint areas that can be improved.