In with the new and out with the old.  The start of the new year is prime time for making room in overstuffed file cabinets and e-mail folders.  Getting organized feels great.

But, don’t start purging documents before checking your company’s document retention policy.  Most companies have policies outlining how long certain paper and electronic records must be kept.  After all, you don’t want to send something to the trash if instead it needs to go into archive or some other type of longer term storage, and you don’t want to go dumpster diving to retrieve documents that were mistakenly tossed like one bank did.

In addition to deciding which business records must stay and which can go, companies should be consistent in applying their document retention policies.  In other words, if the paper version of the document is scheduled of destruction then all corresponding electronic versions of the document should be purged as well. 

Sounds simple, but deleting an electronic document from your directory, for example, does not delete it from your computer.  It stays there until it is written over.  As a result, the “deleted” document can be recovered using various computer forensic techniques.  That is one reason why most document retention policies are ineffective.

People send e-mails as though they were having conversations with someone in a barR. Scott Meece, global general counsel, senior vice president and secretary of CIBA Vision Corp  as quoted by the Fulton County Daily Report

The casual nature of e-mail banter is often a rich source of troublesome evidence.  To make matters even worse, forensic software can now be used to show edits that were made to the e-mails and reveal thought processes.  It thereby takes evidence to a new level.

Of course an e-mail, like any other business document, does not become “evidence” until there is a threat of litigation or until an actual suit has been filed.   Make sure your documents tell a story your company can be proud of by applying the 12 rules for avoiding smoking guns. 

In this day and age of electronic discovery where outsiders are able to scruitinize what you write and how you think thoughtful communications are more important than ever.