Business communications can come back to haunt you.
Evidence from business records generated over years and even decades affects an increasing number of civil lawsuits. In fact, damage awards have soared in recent years, some due to explosive content of business communications, gaps in documentation, inflammatory e-mail, or charges of evidence tampering.
Most recently, General Motors was hit with a record $4.9 billion verdict, based largely on an internal memo a staff engineer wrote nearly two decades earlier. Similarly, in lawsuits against large insurers and small service providers, old marketing memos were pivotal evidence. Inflammatory e-mail messages haunted Microsoft in its antitrust trial, and offensive e-mail plagues employers in costly harassment lawsuits. These are just a few examples of business communications created in one context and then “spun” against the company in the courtroom.