In response to the obvious increase in electronically produced information, the Federal Government has updated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which govern how lawsuits are conducted within U.S. courts.

On April 12, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court approved amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning discovery of Electronically Stored Information. On December 1, 2006, the electronic discovery-related amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. With the new Federal Rules in effect, electronic discovery is more rigorous.

When an organization becomes a party in a lawsuit, often the opposing party seeks access to this electronically-stored information. Standard discovery procedures allow a party to request all relevant materials from an opposing party. The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure now place a greater burden than ever before on parties to a lawsuit to preserve and produce electronic information. Accordingly, businesses need to reexamine their data backup and storage capabilities, policies, and procedures for electronic discovery or risk getting penalized during civil suits.

The new Federal Rules put the onus on IT departments to ensure they have adequate data-retention policies as well as an archiving system that can retrieve documents in their original format, including metadata. To satisfy evidence requirements the systems may need to demonstrate that specific documents were not changed after they were archived.

Because the rules apply to civil suits, any organization -- not just public companies or those in financial services and other data-sensitive markets -- can be affected.