Credit Crisis Causes E-Discovery Hassle

More good news for users struggling with the challenges of e-discovery: CIOs and IT managers should get ready for a whole new raft of legal hassles, at least according to vendor Autonomy.

There are around 14 federal investigations regarding the subprime mortgage and credit crisis,” says Nicole Eagan, Autonomy’s chief marketing officer, explaining that lawyers are already rubbing their hands in anticipation of a massive payday.

With the economy still reeling from the impact of the credit crisis, users will be implementing yet more legal holds on their data, according to Eagan.

”There will be a flurry of activity around mortgage borrowers that may have falsified information when they applied for mortgages,” says the exec, adding that some hedge fund companies could also come under the microscope.

Autonomy of course, has technology to sell, notably, the vendor’s information governance solution announced today.Still, it is clear that e-discovery is about much, much more than the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and making sure that emails are not deleted.

”The email archive is only a subset of the information -- it could also be voice recordings, which are often used in financial fraud cases,” says Autonomy’s Eagan.

More sleepless nights for IT managers.

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