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• Evidence Spoliation—A Growing New Tort ( November 1996 )
  

  During the mid-1980s, courts in three states (Alaska/California/Florida) began upholding the civil tort of spoliation of evidence, permitting the recovery of money damages from persons or companies who destroyed evidence relevant to a civil claim. Juries were allowed to award damages for such claims, albeit normally small awards. But today, the awards can approach or exceed "seven figures" if the evidence destruction is viewed as outrageous and significantly prejudiced an injured party from pursuing his or her injury-recovery day in court.

• Document Retention In The Digital Age: How Long Is Long Enough? ( September 2004 )
  

  The advent of the "paperless society" has been a boon for fastidious record keepers and the lazy alike. With storage capacity expanding to unfathomable dimensions and storage costs per bit of data approaching zero, the incentive to discard, at least at first blush, has been virtually eliminated. However, another trend, the rapid increase in the number of lawsuits, as well as the ever-present risk of government enforcement actions, provide ample justification for doing more than retaining indefinitely an undifferentiated mass of electronic documents.

• Document Retention Policies Revisited ( June 2003 )
  

  A year has passed since last spring's prosecution, conviction, and collapse of Arthur Andersen based on that firm's destruction of documents. Last summer's passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which among other changes, broadened obstruction of justice statutes and enhanced criminal fraud penalties, is no longer front-page news.

• Records Retention: The Need for a Good Corporate Policy ( May 2003 )
  

  We've heard about records retention and the trouble that shredding documents can bring. But are you aware that the law penalizes document modification as well? Take the Arthur Andersen case as an example. In August 2001, questions arose regarding Enron's accounting treatment of certain limited-partnership transactions.

• New Criminal Penalties for Unlawful Document Destruction ( August 2002 )
  

  The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, signed into law on July 30, 2002, creates two entirely new criminal statutes regarding document destruction—Sections 1519 and 1520 of the federal Criminal Code—and expands the scope of a pre-existing statutes, 18 USC 1512.

• Business Practice: Document Retention and Destruction: To Shred or Not To Shred ( March 2002 )
  

  Document destruction in the immediate aftermath of a front-page financial collapse may raise eyebrows, but there are guidelines by which prudent people can safely and systematically purge dated documents.

• How Companies Can Reduce the Costs and Risks Associated with Electronic Discovery ( February 1999 )
  

  This article discusses the legal concerns and considerations associated with electronic discovery.

• Emergency Repairs: Are you Destroying the Evidence ( June 1999 )
  

  Very often property managers and board members are faced with having to make common area emergency repairs during .

• Spoliation of Evidence in Pennsylvania Courts ( June 1999 )
  

  Recent State Court decisions adopt federal court balancing test. The loss or destruction of evidence, termed .