Transborder e-discovery on the rise.

• Position: E-DISCOVERY

As if you didn't have enough to think about in being prepared for e-discovery, what if some of the information needed is stored in another country? It's up to you to ensure you won't run afoul of that country's privacy laws.

And some countries have much more stringent privacy laws than others. For example, European Union member states have based their data protection laws on the EU Data Privacy Directive, which closely regulates how and when personally identifiable information (PII) may be collected, processed, stored, and transferred by an organization. Those controls are much stricter than in the United States.

In addition, according to the global legal services firm Mayer Brown, "Several European countries have enacted blocking statutes designed to protect sovereignty and shield foreign nationals from intrusive U.S.-style litigation. Violations of these foreign laws may result in serious consequences for the organization, including criminal charges."

It's up to legal counsel and information governance professionals to ensure their organizations can meet both their U.S. and foreign legal obligations. Now--before litigation arises--is the time to evaluate those risks and implement the necessary standard controls. In a Mondaq article on the subject, Mayer Brown suggested the following steps:

* Know your data and your legal obligations. Involve local counsel and data privacy professionals in the litigation process to help minimize the risk. This is especially important given proposed changes to the EU directive, which include considerably steeper fines for...