Does e-mail belong in the courtroom? (Up front: news, trends & analysis).Prosecutors involved in the recent Microsoft antitrust case Noun 1. antitrust case - a legal action brought against parties who are charged with limiting free competition in the market place action at law, legal action, action - a judicial proceeding brought by one party against another; one party prosecutes another for a thought so. While the case was settled by the software company and the federal government a few months ago, it helped set a precedent that corporate e-mail can be used in litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. , and it used electronic messages by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates (person) Bill Gates - William Henry Gates III, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with Paul Allen. In 1994 Gates is a billionaire, worth $9.35b and Microsoft is worth about $27b. as an example. This creates new opportunities for lawyers and challenges for organizations in handling e-mail and other electronic messages. The challenging part for organizations is to determine when to retain these various electronic messages and when to simply hit the "delete" button. Even then, organizations need to be aware of the common misconception that information is completely gone once it is deleted. Many companies have sophisticated computer back-up systems that store e-mail and other computer files on servers or back them up on tapes, and the legal profession is now using computers and software to sift through these -- and even "deleted" electronic documents -- to identify them by date, authors, recipients, topics, or keywords. With consulting firms often guiding attorneys in the process, these computerized services allow litigators to spend more of their time planning their cases and meeting with their clients, as opposed to sorting through e-mail files. "Through the 1970s and '80s the single most profitable operation was not the lawyers but the Xerox room at the firm," Geoffrey S. Stewart, a partner at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, recently told The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times. Stewart noted that now "the traditional way of billing and conducting evidentiary ev·i·den·tia·ry adj. Law 1. Of evidence; evidential. 2. For the presentation or determination of evidence: an evidentiary hearing. Adj. 1. work is changing." Stewart suggests that in using these services, litigators must establish a "chain of custody The movement and location of physical evidence from the time it is obtained until the time it is presented in court. Judges in bench trials and jurors in jury trials are obligated to decide cases on the evidence that is presented to them in court. " which confirms that the data presented in court is the same data that the company provided. This chain necessitates the documentation of the contents of all electronic materials and the date they were received. Copies of these materials, which may include e-mails, electronic memos, and personal digital assistant (PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) A handheld computer for managing contacts, appointments and tasks. It typically includes a name and address database, calendar, to-do list and note taker, which are the functions in a personal information manager (see PIM). ) files, are stored in a central storage system, which is typically a set of linked hard drives. It is here that the information goes through a filter that eliminates duplicate records and organizes data by subject line, author, recipient, and date. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion