Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Electronic Mail Storage

There are a number of laws on the subject, notably the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for publicly traded companies, and the new Federal Court rules which require parties to lawsuits to be able to rapidly retrieve their records. For these and other reasons, businesses should have written policies that cover topics such as document retention and destruction.

Re: Electronic Mail Storage

Unless you are governed by various specific rules that may apply to your particular industry such as medical, financial or certain other rules dealing with personally identifiable information the standard is one of reasonableness. One sure fire way to run afoul of any determination on the issue of whether you acted reasonably in destroying your e-mail is not to have an electronic or e-mail document retention policy at all. With assistance of counsel, you should create not only a plan but a procedure and then stick to it.