<<
Scenario:
I have an e-mail message related to FRA content that must be retained
for 6 years.  (I only need the content of the message, not the
metadata.) My organization has a documented policy which states that
e-mails are deleted from the Outlook Exchange system at the age of 4
years.  Therefore, I move the message of importance to me (and the FRA)
out of the Outlook system, and save as an .htm, .msg or .pdf file in my
shared network drive. Then, a civil action arises under which all
e-mails to or from Janice Hulme must be produced.  My organization
produces only 4 years of e-mails and states that, by policy, no others
exist.   Does this hold up in court?
>>

I think there are some RIM fundamentals being missed here, unless I
misunderstand the question being asked. First of all, if you have a
regulatory retention requirement, that should be in your records
retention schedule, and it should read something like this
"Correspondence, including email messages, should be retained for 6
years IAW [insert FRA citation here]."

Then, your process for receiving and filing those documents, whether
letters or email messages or whatever, should be built to accommodate
that retention. An email server is not a records repository and so the
length of time messages are kept there should not matter, because your
policy and process should be to file it off of the email server into a
some type of electronic document management system if you have one, (or,
[sigh], an "email archiving" application) or a folder (shared drive) if
you don't. Folders should be organized and named so that they would be
included in any discovery about the FRA (or anything else) just like
paper files are. Filing it in a folder as an .msg should in no way
prevent it from being included in discovery if you have done this
correctly. So your "organization" should be able to produce 6 years of
emails when it comes to FRA messages.

If I am a professional records manager (which I am), I am going to set
up a system wherein emails (and all other FRA records) are maintained in
some type of system (according to my resources) that ensures that all
records are "findable" and accessible for six years. 

But that's just me. And what do I know? -- I root for the Pirates.

Gary Link, CRM
Pittsburgh, PA

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