Susan, you make some good points as well. In my environment, the issues
tend to center around disputes regarding whether something is a public
record or not (and why it was deleted or not made available), as well as
audit issues. The damages tend to be less monetary in nature and more
political (although, relatively speaking, those monetary damages can be
quite severe, particularly if the government in question is a small local
government). Local cases in Oregon that had both impacts include Oregon
PERS, and City of  Beaverton, OR.

To be honest, litigation damages have simply not had the impact or played
as much of a role in my area as they have in the corporate world.
Nevertheless, whether the damages result from litigation or are political
in nature, poor records keeping is often the core of the problem, as you so
rightly note.

To put my comment in context, I am a bit of a curmudgeon in that I think we
emphasize litigation risk too much at the expense of other values. While I
recognize the value of that emphasis in selling products, services and
programs (particularly start up programs), I think that emphasis can also
lead us to misapply the tools and knowledge we have at our disposal in ways
that undermine our goals in the long term.

-- 
Dwight Wallis, CRM
Multnomah County Records Management Program
1620 SE 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
ph: (503)988-3741
fax: (503)988-3754
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