Email to a Friend

Email Is Potent Evidence
January 2006

Email deserves special attention as it has quickly become the information of choice for many types of lawsuits, from harassment to intellectual property disputes. Ease of use and the casual nature with which some users approach email often combine to create significant problems for a company.

With email, the complexity of where information resides is exponential. An email can be created and distributed to one or multiple recipients, who in turn can forward the message to others and so on. In addition, an email message may be retained in hard copy by the sender or recipients and may find its way to the company's backup system. For this reason, a high degree of caution should be taken when transmitting confidential or privileged information via email. A company is wise to retain as much control as possible over the appropriate transmission and receipt of sensitive information.

The metadata for email is also revealing, recording such details as day and time of creation, recipients, and priority and tracking properties requested by the sender. In daily practice, the lines between email, the telephone and written documents is blurring, but in the legal arena, email is a clear and potent source of tangible and discoverable documentation.