January 09, 2008, 4:04 PM — What seems to be the problem? CommVault recently conducted a survey
regarding last year's changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP)
and how businesses are responding to them. (CommVault briefed me on their survey.)
The survey indicates that 80% of IT respondents are not aware of the amendments
to the FRCP. Unfortunately, in this case, ignorance is not bliss. The consequences of not following
the new rules could be costly.
What you need to know: On December 1, 2006, changes to the FRCP were approved
that affect the use of electronically-stored information (ESI) in civil litigation
in the U.S. court system. Since all businesses (no matter what their size) can
be sued in U.S. court, all businesses are subject to the regulations. These
changes have a number of significant implications that impact IT organizations,
including the need to find and produce "discoverable" data in a timely
fashion and guaranteeing the authenticity of that data. (See a series of storage
tips that were done about a year ago for a better understanding of some of the
key impacts of the changes to the rules and what you can do about them.)
Currently, 80% of IT does nothing simply because they are unaware of the changes.
What about the other 20%? 13% of the total (or 2/3 of the respondents who are
aware of the changes) are meeting internally to prepare for the challenges that
the FRCP imposes. 6% of the total (or about 1/3 of the aware respondents) have
already implemented a solution to address the challenges.
Legal departments must share some of the blame for lack of awareness. They
should be (and the survey confirms this) more aware of the changes and must
accept responsibility for establishing corporate policies and procedures with
respect to the rules, such as data retention policies. This process must involve
consultation with business units (which understand the business requirements
for data use) and IT (which is responsible for the electronic implementation
of the necessary policies and procedures).
The internal communications among the three groups is not going to be easy,
but letting everything slide under the table will not be a successful strategy.
What can be done about it? Changes to the FRCP rules are only the tip
of the iceberg regarding how to actively manage your data. Ramp up on the new
rules, and start a dialog wit your legal department.
See the full text
on the amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
