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What Your Company Needs To Know About Records Retention

By Whitney Adams
May 26, 2004

A recent industry survey reported that nearly half of large companies currently don't have policies about when to keep and when to destroy their electronic records and those that do usually don't enforce them (Cohasset Assocs. 2004; available at www.merresource.com/whitepapers/survey.htm). If your company is one of these businesses, it is risking huge legal problems if someone in your company destroys an e-mail or information on backup tapes that relates to any existing or future litigation ' because your company may wind up being hit with sanctions for spoliation.

The obvious solution is to craft and implement a records retention policy (RRP) for your company. But you'd better beware. A recent federal court ruling underscores that implementing a new RRP can also create the potential for massive legal liability.

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