Imagine that just before leaving the company, a now-former employee of your business takes some propriety information, such as a customer list, trade secrets, or computer code. Now imagine that in the ensuing lawsuit, your business is able to obtain an instruction from the judge directing the jury to make an adverse inference from the fact that this former employee failed to properly maintain his or her emails, didn’t produce them, lost, or even destroyed them. Great, right? But what if the judge makes your business pay the former employee’s costs to get your emails because you didn’t have a plan to keep them.
Can’t happen? Think again.
