Get serious about e-discovery.

• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors - Survey

In early August, consulting services provider Contoural Inc. and Osterman Research released a survey showing that companies are "largely unprepared" for responding to litigation. How unprepared? Well, more than 69 percent of the survey's respondents said their firms were not litigation-ready. According to the survey, only six percent--six percent!--said they could "immediately and confidently" handle e-discovery requests.

In June 2007, the survey polled more than 100 IT managers in medium and large enterprises about their litigation-readiness status and practices. According to the results, more than 51 percent of organizations had not yet identified anyone in their IT departments prepared to testify in court regarding electronically stored information (ESI), including what records are retained, where the records reside, how they are protected, and how the information could be retrieved, if necessary, in the event of an investigation or court order.

This is the most recent of several studies showing that companies are not taking the management of electronic records seriously--results that should frighten every organization and every records manager into action. Companies that have not yet begun to get a grip on their electronic records--or assembled or hired qualified records managers, IT personnel, and legal staff to do so--had better get serious and get started.

Because most organizations today are creating more electronic documents than paper ones, this issue will not go away--and The Information Management Journal will continue to press its importance to its readers.

This issue, in particular, addresses electronic records and e-records management from many perspectives. In his article, "Authentic Digital Records: Laying the Foundation for Evidence," Stephen Mason stresses the importance of having a foundation for proving that records submitted as evidence in U.S. courts are reliable, usable, and have integrity, based on standards and best practices. As a starting point for preserving digital records, he says, look to accepted standards and best practices, and be sure to document everything.

Nancy Williams asks whether legal records managers are ready for "electronic prime time" in her...