Legal Info and Disaster Recovery Post-Katrina

The Inter Alia legal research blog references a discussion on what the Katrina disaster "teaches us (...) about the value of electronic documents...".

Among the points raised:

• Many companies had all their important data digitally backed up but weren't able to get their operations up and running when having to rely solely on the back-up data.
• "How do you prove even simple matters when the filing systems and paper records that house that proof are gone, unavailable for long periods of time, or prohibitively expensive to recover? ... Will law firms who have conducted electronic discovery have an enormous advantage over law firms that have not? How will clients react when they find that the paper records they entrusted to their law firms were not protected and are not salvageable? "
• "PACER put out a post-Katrina notice that its information systems were affected in courts all across the Gulf coast, including Florida...In others, PACER said court information might not be current."

The discussion describes the huge mess the legal system is in down there and points to the importance of having a detailed disaster plan in place before disaster strikes.