Email Archiving and Litigation

Companies are bombarded by emails daily; over 4.3 billion emails were sent and received in 2023, according to Radicati. Managing these emails is a task in its own right, and email archiving is essential to email governance and management. Regulations, like FINRA, set out data retention, security, and privacy requirements. Email archiving is necessary for adherence to regulatory compliance because the email contains confidential, sensitive, and proprietary data. Email archiving is also an essential tool during litigation.

Features of Email Archiving Solutions that Help in Litigation

Email archiving solutions typically offer several functions that ensure robust email storage and retrieval. Typical features of an email archiving solution that apply to litigation include the following:

• Audit trails for ease of investigation.
• Fast and accurate eDiscovery to perform the legal requirements needed during litigation.
• Records management.
• Comprehensive audit trails.
• Encryption and access control to emails and attachments to ensure security and integrity.
• Secure storage for confidentiality and integrity.

Why Do You Need Email Archiving for Litigation?

An email archive is a repository of all emails sent and received. The email archive also contains any attachments that an email contains. There are many important reasons to maintain an email archive, and litigation is a prime example. 

Lawyers and supporting entities will request information to help prepare a case during litigation. This eDiscovery process often includes email trails, including attachments and even calendar entries. This evidence must be accurate and audited. Email evidence must be shown to have integrity and not be tampered with. Speed is another essential element of preparation for litigation. 

Another aspect of eDiscovery is cost. A recent review of eDiscovery costs estimated that they represent 20-50% of the total litigation costs. As email communication increases in volume, eDiscovery costs will likely continue to increase. An accurate, timely, and robust email archive system can help control these costs.

All these requirements are delivered using an email archiving solution, like ArcTitan.

A recent review of eDiscovery costs estimated that they represent 20-50% of the total litigation costs.

Is Email Archiving a Lawful Requirement?

Email archiving solutions are designed to make the archive and discovery processes secure, privacy-respectful, accurate, and fast. Email regulation falls under various data protection legislation. ArcTitan, for example, enforces robust data protection and enables retention policies that ensure email archiving complies with laws such as GDPR, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and FINRA. These regulations contain requirements that encompass emails and attachments. For example:

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has audit and retention requirements that affect emails. SEC Rule 17a-4 requires financial services organizations to keep an archive of their electronic communications.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requires that personal data, including archived email-based personal data, be secured and access to stored emails controlled.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) specifies that covered entities must securely back up “exact copies of electronically protected health information (PHI)” and must be able to "restore any loss of data."

SOX (Sabanes Oxley) requires that "specialized software is installed that provides the "electronic paper trails" necessary to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance."

Evidence of compliance with a regulatory framework is essential to demonstrate that any emails required for a legal dispute are tamper-free, have an audit trail proving integrity, and have been secure in the repository.

Security and integrity are essential for an email archive solution to meet litigation needs. However, other features are needed to ensure an email archiving tool works for you.

ArcTitan frees up to 80% of email storage space, significantly improving existing email performance and efficiency.

What to Look for in Email Archiving for Litigation

Once you implement email archiving, you must evaluate any solution options. The following features should be tested when choosing an email archiving solution.

Ease of Retrieval during Litigation

Emails must be easily and quickly retrieved during a legal dispute. Having a comprehensive and accurate search is fundamental to fast retrieval. Search options should be granular and include the entire organization, departments, or groups. This granularity should cover email headers, content, and attachments. The relevant emails requested during eDiscovery should be instantly presented using these search terms.

Access to Emails from a Centralized Console

Cloud-based email archiving ensures that access to emails and attachments is simple and allows for remote access if required. Cloud-based email archive solutions that offer a centralized console allow administrators and legal and compliance teams to administer archive policies and generate reports and other documents needed for evidence.

Robust Security

The data enclosed in an email or attachment must be secured to ensure integrity. Achieving this level of demonstrable protection requires the use of granular, permissions-based access controls, which should follow the principle of least privilege access rights. Encryption must also be used during email transfer and storage.

Multi-Format File Support

eDiscovery requires that emails and attachment retrieval be available in various formats and standards, including PST, EML, PDF, etc.

Retention Policies

An email retention policy (ERP) must be configurable to reflect the organization’s business requirements and compliance needs. The ERP will determine how long emails are archived before deletion. However, an email archive solution must be flexible enough to handle “legal hold requests.” During litigation, audits, investigations, or other aspects of a legal case, email preservation beyond the regulatory retention period may be required.

ArcTitan Email Archiving Solution Added Benefits:

ArcTitan is an email archiving solution that provides all the essential requirements needed for litigation. However, as an advanced and comprehensive email archiving solution, ArcTitan adds benefits to organizations, including the following:

Email Performance

ArcTitan frees up to 80% of email storage space, significantly improving existing email performance and efficiency. It handles over 200 emails per second.

Fast Email Restoration for Disaster Recovery

If your organization suffers a security incident, ArcTitan can be used to restore email data quickly.

‘Set & Forget’

ArcTitan is easy to set up and use, and TitanHQ provides exceptional support. ArcTitan is a 'set and forget' solution for email archiving.

Microsoft Office 365 Integration

ArcTitan integrates with M365 Outlook to automate email archiving.

Cost-Effective

ArcTitan is cost-effective, starting at $2.80 per active user per month.

Litigation requires that an organization has fast and accurate access to email data to support claims, arguments, and defenses. Email archiving provides the access, integrity, and reporting needed to deliver evidence during court cases.

To learn more about the type of email archiving needed for litigation, talk to a TitanHQ expert.