Instant Messaging Creates a Written Record That Can Be Used as Evidence - For or Against You

Instant Messaging Creates a Written Record That Can Be Used as Evidence—For or Against You

Where we once used the telephone to exchange business and personal information, today we use IM and e-mail. By replacing informal phone chat with computer chat, we have created a process by which conversations are recorded and business decisions are documented electronically. The result is written ammunition that can help make or break your case, should a workplace lawsuit be filed, or the wrong message land in the hands of the media.

In the past, if a lawyer were trying to uncover what employees were saying, doing, or thinking at a given time, the best evidence might come from notepad doodles, appointment calendar scrawl, telephone message receipts, and other informal documents. With the advent of the workstation computer and the prevalence of IM and e-mail, there is an unprecedented amount of documented business communication available today.

An inappropriate instant or e-mail message is not merely written,-sent, and forgotten. Message archiving capabilities on public networks allow people to log and store IM conversations without the other party’s consent, just like e-mail. Responsible employers use enterprise IM or gateway IM products to save and archive IM transmissions. Consequently litigators and investigators today often have access to a library of IM documents (business records and personal messages combined) for use as evidence. ^[9]

^[9]Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Handbook, New York, AMACOM, 2001.