New Book And Toolkit Equip Organizations For The New Challenges Of Legal E-Discovery

New book and toolkit detail the recently amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in order to help organizations face the new challenges of legal E-Discovery.

Ely, England (PRWEB) July 26, 2007 -- Under the recently amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure organizations face tough new requirements for preserving their electronically stored information, such as email and word-processing documents, so that it can swiftly be produced in the event of a lawsuit. However, research reveals that, while such legal demands are common for larger organizations, very few are ready for these new E-Discovery rules, leaving the majority open to costly fines and adverse rulings. To help corporations adapt to the new requirements top infosecurity publisher IT Governance Limited has launched 'E-Discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure' as the latest in its series of Practical IT Governance pocket guides.

'E-Discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure' is written in recognition that larger organizations are highly likely to face E-Discovery requests. According to ESG Research, 91 percent of organizations with over 20,000 employees have been through an E-Discovery event in the past 12 months. However, a recent survey of corporate attorneys by Pike and Fisher revealed that only 7 percent feel that their companies are ready to meet these new requirements.

In response, IT Governance Limited recruited Bradley J Schaufenbuel, senior manager in IT Risk and Security at Zurich Financial Services in Illinois, to write this concise expert guide to the new rules. Over 68 pages, he provides an easily absorbed account of the background and details of the new rules and explains what organizations must do immediately to ready themselves for possible future lawsuits.

In particular, Schaufenbuel addresses the tight timeframes in which electronic information must now be gathered and presented to opposing counsel, and how this in turn demands a far more rigorous and strategic methodology for storing corporate information on an ongoing basis. It highlights the stark truth that in the eyes of the court 'ignorance is no longer bliss' and that organizations are expected to be able to retrieve electronic information as needed. It also discusses the new multi-disciplinary approach that must be adopted to comply with these demands, drawing in personnel from record management, IT, compliance and legal, to ensure that a comprehensive compliance framework is developed.

A failure to adequately provide electronic information in response to a discovery request can prove extremely costly. Severe consequences can include a judge instructing a jury to assume that missing evidence would have been 'adverse' to the party failing to provide it. In a recent sexual discrimination lawsuit such an instruction led to banking group UBS having to pay $29 million to a former employee, whereas in Coleman vs Morgan Stanley a similar event saw billionaire Ronald Perelman awarded $1.45 billion against Morgan Stanley. Heavy fines and penalties may also be levied by the court, which in the case of Serra Chevrolet vs General Motors were as high as $50,000 per day for a late response to a discovery request.

'E-Discovery and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure' is priced at $29.95 and is available from IT Governance Limited in softback hard copy and may be ordered for shipping at www.27001.com/products/48. Alternatively, an e-book version may be purchased for immediate download at www.27001.com/products/49.

For non-US customers, the same works are available from www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/1000 (softback) and www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/1002 (e-book) priced at £19.95.

To complement and enhance this new pocket guide, IT Governance Limited has also released an E-Discovery toolkit. This contains a comprehensive suite of policies, checklists and templates that address all the steps an organization must take prior to, during and between E-Discovery events. Purchasers of this toolkit will also benefit from IT Governance's unique drafting support service and 12 months of automatic updates that ensure they benefit from the latest information and practices in this area.

The 'E-Discovery No. 1 Toolkit' is priced at $199.95 and is available for immediate download from http://www.27001.com/products/47. For non-US customers the toolkit is available for download from http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/1007 priced at £99.95.
Alan Calder, chief executive of publisher IT Governance Limited, said, "Bradley Schaufenbuel has produced an invaluable and extremely timely book that stands to save millions for businesses based or operating in the United States. Lawsuits are a fact of life in US commerce and the new rules on E-Discovery place far more exacting demands on how organizations must manage their electronic information. A failure to comply with these new demands can swiftly result in multi-million dollar fines and damages, so there is simply no option but for businesses to prepare adequately."

NOTES TO EDITORS

IT Governance Ltd is the one-stop-shop for information security books, tools, training and consultancy. It approaches infosec issues from a non-technology background and talks to management in its own language. Its customer base spans Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. More information is available at www.27001.com and www.itgovernance.co.uk.

Bradley J Schaufenbuel, CISSP, CISM is Senior Manager of IT Risk and Security at Zurich Financial Services in Illinois. Prior to his current role, he held security leadership positions at Experian and Arthur Andersen. Bradley has co-authored several books and has had articles published in professional journals on a variety of topics related to IT security and governance. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from DePaul University and is currently pursuing a Juris Doctorate degree in IT law from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Alan Calder is an international authority on information security management. He led the world's first successful implementation of BS 7799, the information security management standard upon which ISO 27001 is based, and wrote the definitive compliance guide for this standard, 'IT Governance: A Manager's Guide to Data Security and BS7799/ISO17799'. The 3rd edition of this book is the basis for the UK Open University's postgraduate course on Information Security. He is a consultant to companies including Cisco. He regularly blogs on IT security issues at http://alancalder.blogspot.com/.

'Electronically Stored Information': The Conference of Chief Justices defines ESI as follows: 'Electronically stored information is any information created, stored, or best utilized with computer technology of any type. It includes but is not limited to data; word processing documents; spreadsheets; presentation documents; graphics; animations; images; e-mail and instant messages (including attachments); audio, video and audiovisual recordings; voicemail stored on databases; networks; computers and computer systems; servers; archives; back-up or disaster recovery systems; discs, CDs, diskettes, drives, tapes cartridges and other storage media; printers; the Internet; personal digital assistants; handheld wireless devices; cellular telephones; pagers; fax machines; and voicemail systems.' ESI can also include non-apparent information, or metadata, that describes the context of the information.

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