>My second question: Am I really chicken little? I'm thinking the city is
>not exempt from lawsuits or a discovery order. In fact, we do have a
>lawsuit brewing relating to a land deal.

I found this to be the most critical aspect of the information you've
provided in this message. From what we were told last week, once you know
litigation is PROBABLE, counsel is to inform the organization of their duty
to preserve information and the penalties for failure to do so, and that
this applies equally to electronic, as well as physical forms of
information.

>Fortunately, I've not any e-mails regarding this other than some records
>requests for minutes of meetings, which requests are transitory in nature
>and not kept.

Well, yeah... but... if litigation is PROBABALE and the minutes discuss any
aspects of the probable litigation, then transitory or not, you should
have been told to preserve them. However, if you weren't, then you're just
doing your job and you're under no obligation to do anything... but like I
said, I'm not the attorney. =)


A little more on this...

The requirements I mentioned above are from the following:

ABA Civil Discovery Standard, 10 and 29 (a)(i)- 1999

"When a lawyer who has been retained to handle a matter learns that litigaion is probabale or has commenced, the lawyer should inform the client of its duty to preserve potentially relevant documents and of the possible consequences for failing to do so"

This obligation to preserve applies equally to "information contained or stored in an electronic medium or format, including a computer word processing document, storage medium, database, spreadsheet and electronic mail"

Larry

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