Management ECM Excuse #2: No one is ever going to sue us.

Management ECM Excuse #2:  No one is ever going to sue us.  Who would ever want to sue us? I’m sure if push comes to shove, we can find whatever we need to defend ourselves. Let’s not go looking for problems.

Check out the video at http://www.aiim.org/excuse2.

Reality:

No need; the problems certainly will come looking for you! The sad truth is that you don’t have to have done something wrong to have a suit brought against you. But if you can demonstrate to opposing counsel that you can readily produce documentation that counters the claim, the whole matter may simply go away before it ever gets started.

Consider, for instance, a dispute over a beneficiary change made to a life insurance policy, which dictates who is supposed to receive possibly significant sums of money following an accident or death. Being able to prove in a preliminary meeting that the change was properly authorized likely would keep the problem out of court – but this can’t happen without a system for tracking and auditing such forms.

Even if the case does go forward, you still must be able to produce court-ordered documents in a timely manner or face fairly significant penalties. Morgan Stanley, for instance, once was fined $1.6 billion in part for its inability to produce email evidence. No one I know wants to risk that kind of punishment! So if nothing else, consider information management as a sort of litigation insurance policy – if you ever need it, you’ll sure be glad it’s there.

For more information:

AIIM training – http://www.aiim.org/training

AIIM research – http://www.aiim.org/research

Check out the video at http://www.aiim.org/excuse2.