Legal Issues and Discovery Requests

April 13, 2016
Introduction
I going to research the FRCP (Federal Rules for Civil Procedures) and e-discovery as they pertain to email. I will also describe the rules governing the situation. I will also discuss how the rules specifically do or do not apply to the situation and make a recommendation of how the company should respond to the discovery request. I will then wrap it up with an overview of the IT field in the state of Virginia. IT position, companies, summary of jobs, education requirements and pay salaries.

Rules governing the situation FRCP governs the collection of electronic stored documents, including email as evidence in a civil suits. All business needs to retain a data retention policy for relevant emails, electronically stored information (ESI), network logs and other virtually stored documents (Intradyn, 2016). The e-discovery amendments for FRCP cover five related areas (Gates, 2016).
A. Definition of discoverable material – to acknowledge that electronically stored information is discoverable, this is meant to include any type of information that can be stored electronically (Gates, 2016).
B. Early attention to issues relating to electronic discovery, including the format of production - it means that parties to address electronically stored information early in the discovery process, recognizing that such early attention is crucial in order to control the scope and expense of electronic discovery, and avoid discovery disputes.
C. Electronically Stored Information from Sources that are not Reasonably Accessible – if the requesting party moves compel discovery of such information, the responding party must show that the information is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost (Gates, 2016).
D. Asserting Claim of Privilege or Work Product Protection after Production – once a party seeking to establish privilege or work product claims notifies the receiving parties of the claim and the grounds for it, the receiving parties must return, sequester, or destroy the specified information (Gates, 2016).
E. Safe Harbor – this provides absent exceptional circumstances, a court may not impose sanctions on a party for failing to provide electronically stored information lost as a result of routine, good faith operation of an electronic information system. It responds to the routine modification, overwriting and deletion of information that attends the normal use of electronic information systems (Gates, 2016).
These are the rules that will governing this situation.
Specifically how the rules do apply to this situation The company requested for any and all the emails that is related to specific keywords that they supplied. So if your company can’t supply the documents requested by the rules of the FRCP, then your company can face legal litigation charges, risk court fines and legal findings that rule against your company (Intradyn, 2016). Rule D – as earlier stated that once a party seeking to establish privilege or work product claims notifies the receiving parties of the claim and the grounds for it, the receiving parties must return, sequester, or destroy the specified information (Gates, 2016). Rule B - it means that parties to address electronically stored information early in the discovery process, recognizing that such early attention is crucial in order to control the scope and expense of electronic discovery, and avoid discovery disputes (Gates, 2016). These two rules govern the situation that my company is in.
Recommendation for the company. My recommendation to my company is to give them what they are asking for. If they want any and all emails related to specific keywords, we have to give them the e-mails that they are asking for because of the rules govern by the FRCP which pertain to emails. This is the only way we can keep this company out of more legal litigations. So I recommended to my CEO that we need to comply with these orders. It’s all about saving the company.
IT positions in Virginia

1. Firewall Administrator - Richmond, Virginia - Full time position – Education level, Bachelor’s Degree – Salary $40.00 - $44.00 hr. Company: Slait Consulting Company -Job description: operational implementation, maintenance and configuration of firewalls. You would be responsible for performing maintenance and changes in firewalls. Implementation of new firewalls as needed, assisting with troubleshooting network connectivity as it relates to firewalls. Utilizing change management, request, and ticketing systems, to assist others and documents status updates and problem resolutions. Complete network change requests. Experience: 2 to 5 years (Jobs2Careers, 2016).
2. Network/Systems Engineer – IT Audit – Richmond, Virginia – Full Time position – Education level, Bachelor’s Degree – Salary $75,000 - $85,000 yr. – Company: Synigent Technologies – Job Description: Synigent Technologies is looking for someone with strong hands on Network/Systems Administrator skills who is looking to move into a role as an IT Auditor. This role will not serve as a hands on technologist but will use these skills to better serve in an IT Audit capacity. Previous IT Audit experience is a plus but is not required as this individual will be trained in IT Audit. Experience: 2 to 5 years. (Jobs2Careers, 2016).

REFERNCES
K&L Gates (2016) E-Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules to Civil Procedures Go in Effect Today. Retrieved from http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/2006/12/e-discovery-amendments-to-the-federal-rules-of-civil-procedure-go-into-effect-today/

Intradyn (2016) FRCP and Email Archiving: The Impact to your Business. Retrieved from https://www.intradyn.com/frcp-and-email-archiving-the-impact-to-your-business/

Job 2 Careers (2016) IT Positions in Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.jobs-to-careers.com/index3.php?c1=9&c2=41154&c3=103&c4=167&c5=363&q=IT&l=VA&adpos=1t3&matchtype=e&network=g&device=c&devicemodel=&kw=it%20jobs%20in%20virginia&pl=&gclid=CKvKs4mTjcwCFQZkhgodBNwHFw