Customers Cite E-Discovery Best Practices: Page 6 of 7

Rather than become data pack rats, companies need to figure out policies that make sense. Keep in mind that the FRCP has some leeway. If a company has a policy that seems to be reasonable and the company appears to be trying to comply with it, then those steps should be sufficient for the regulators.

Experts say companies should keep information online for six months and have it available offline via tape for up to a year. In general, if the information is older than that, it does not have to be kept. But again, different rules apply to different industries, and it's best to get specific legal advice before implementing any throw-away policies.

Don't rest on your laurels
The issue of e-discovery started mainly with the growing importance of email. But other forms of electronic messaging are slowly moving onto the docket as potential information sources. “The question is when will the courts determine that items such as instant messaging and texting need to be discoverable,” said Gartner’s Logan. “Access to that information is something that companies eventually will be asked to provide.”

Bottom line? If your company is in a highly litigious industry, you'd better start scoping out options for archiving more than email.

Table 1: An E-Discovery Products Sampler