Corporations Face Problems with Employee Emails 160
TwistedOne151 writes "Law.com has an article outlining how the casual attitude of many employees toward work e-mails has resulted in some thorny problems for corporate in-house counsel. 'It has now become routine even in civil investigations for computers to be subpoenaed so lawyers can look at e-mails and hard drives. And one thing always leads to another. "We have forensic software that shows multiple levels of deletions. It shows thought processes. We can learn far more than from just a document alone," said [Scott] Sorrels. "E-mails have taken over the world."'"
Lawyer's advice: be two faced (Score:3, Interesting)
My personal favorite is the few times I've had to voice concern over the possible legal implications of a particular action. I've had people IM or call me instead of replying to emails because they don't want to be "on the record". To which I have said in the past: "oh, don't you know the IM is logged?" or "You know, if you don't reply to my email and clear this up than all that will be 'on the record' is my concerns and none of your explanations."
Of course, there are people who think its okay to break the law, just so long as no-one finds out about it. To those people I don't send email - I send it direct to the CEO.
Article reads like a 'cry wolf' (Score:4, Interesting)
Nope, me neither.
Procrastination (Score:1, Interesting)
Never say over the phone what you can say in person
Re:Simple Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
As true now as it was then.
Re:Solution?: Use DRAM SSD for email storage (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wait, emails have taken over the world?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:"E-mails have taken over the world" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Lawyer's advice: be two faced (Score:3, Interesting)
You had previously entered into an explicit contract with them (opened an account), and I'm sure somewhere in their terms it says they can change the contract by giving notice. You can make silence the condition of accepting these new changes in your original contract - you can't create a new one by just sending an email with your terms. If you could, spam would be a much bigger problem. Civil court requires a preponderance of evidence, but you still have to tip the scales to your favor, if just barely. And who do you think has a better understanding of the bank's intentions - you, or an employee of the bank?
In my recollection, written correspondence can be used as proof of a contract only if it is used against the person sending it.
In other words, the bank etc could use it against you, but you couldn't use it against them.