Alextronic Discovery
Alextronic Discovery
An Electronic Discovery Blog covering News, Articles
and Thoughts for the Legal and Corporate Community Author: Alexander H. Lubarsky, LL.M., Esq. - alubarsky@enterusa.com - Tel. (415) 533-4166 OR 800-375-4222 THIS BLAWG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE WEB SITES WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.ORG OR WWW.DISCOVERYRESOURCES.COM


Thursday, January 29, 2004

From Washington to Nigeria and Back...  

From Washington to Nigeria and Back...

Not too many industries are able to fly low under the radar these days. Gone are the days in the seventies where huge land deals would be struck in clear violation of zoning and public housing regulations. We bid adieu to the gluttonous 80's where frat boys manipulated junk bonds just enough to plop a red Testarossa in the four car garage. The offshore wire transfer financial institution scams of the nineties are now history. Where did all the fun go?

Now I'd be the last to suggest that we've entered into the clear zone. I for one am still awaiting for King Neby Mgawanga of Nigeria to deliver me my fifty-million dollars of his Uncle's (King Matawabu III) once frozen assets that I helped liberate. I've also been noticing the mysterious debits on my Visa card from some company called V-I/\G.R/\ .com for them vitamins I've been taking that have been keeping me up late at night.

We can now rest assured that our interests are protected not by the new moral code promulgated by the Bush Jr. administration but rather by the new certification requirements calling for records retention standards. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of June 2003 which requires CEO's and CFO's of financial institutions to retain essentially all internal and investor electronic communications. Also, any "significant changes" made to the corporate financial reporting scheme must be duly revealed via a quarterly report. Failure to report/retain would subject the CEO or CFO to criminal penalties if such a failure was knowing and in bad faith.

These new regulations don't only protect our pocketbook, they allow us to engage some of America's most important institutions with a renewed sense of trust and zeal. It's sort of like knowing that the new DC-10's have remote auto-pilot capabilities today just in case the pilot starts to doze...

Of course, these new requirements call for the enhanced retention of electronic records which translates into an avalanche of electronic discovery when it comes to litigation. Companies who are in business to help these financial institutions retain their electronic communications and therefore stay compliant with the new regulations (fines have reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars for those who have strayed from the regulations) are partnering with electronic data processing outfits to handle this onslaught of electronic data comprising the bulk of what used to be traditional paper discovery.

As a nation of laws, I don't see us going the other direction anytime soon. "Lawless laissez faire" societies such as modern day Russia went from extreme regulation to the wild west and they have suffered. Of course, there is a happy medium out there somewhere - but finding it is the trick. In the meantime, them EDD and financial data capture machines will be a hummin...

posted by Alexander | 12:45 AM

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Alex Lubarsky is a practicing litigator and legal technology enthusiast. He was elected to the California State Bar Law Technology Executive Committee in 2003. Alex is a certified trainer and regularly teaches litigation support. Alex is frequent guest speaker at numerous legal technology conferences and State Bar events across the U.S. and has authored articles for legal technology publications such as Law Office Computing and The Bottom Line.

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