Records Management - You Can Fight City Hall

Despite years of legal precedent and expert testimony, many businesses continue to flounder on the issue of e-mail management.  I was recently privy to a major US financial institution whose e-mail records policy was clearly defined on paper, but had no system in place to enforce the policy.  Compliance with policy was based on user's identifying and manually declaring specific e-mails as records appropriately.

Good enough right?  Once again the answer is no.  If you don't believe me, how about U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy.  According to a recent article, on Nov. 10  the judge ruled that courts  have jurisdiction to review the adequacy of an organization's record-keeping guidelines - including the provision of substantial and automated approaches. (What is amazing in this case is the "organization" is The White House.)

It is alleged that The White House replaced its  Automated Records Management System in 2002 with another automated archive system, which led to  at least five million e-mail messages being "lost."

[Interestingly enough - the messages allegedly lost between  2003 to 2005 include details on the invasion of Iraq, the Valerie Plame leak investigation and Hurricane Katrina.]

The Bush administration argued among other things that the court does not have jurisdiction to order the establishment of a records keeping system. Nay said the judge and the case will continue.

If such mandates can be successfully argued against the While House, is there any doubt in your mind regarding the ultimate fate your corporate e-mail management policy will meet?  E-mail management and records management is serious business - no excuses - and apparently no one is above the law.

For those interested in more detail, read the article.