Chief execs in firing line over e-disclosure

That's despite the fact that they will pay the penalty for failures to preserve information as evidence in disputes, according to an industry survey.

Companies are advised to have electronic data policies to manage the storage of information to aid e-discovery in case of disputes or court cases. Both the chief executives who bear responsibility for compliance and many legal departments who implement policies are not knowledgeable enough, according to a survey by e-discovery specialists Kroll Ontrak.

"Clearly in the UK, in-house counsel and their external counsel are lacking significantly in their training and understanding of rules and regulations regarding their electronic information," said Martin Carey, managing director of Kroll Ontrack in London. "They do not yet seem to be grasping the fact that all this data is no longer just information; rather it can now all be considered as evidence. This fact alone shows a severe lack of ownership and understanding."

The UK's Civil Procedure Rules govern e-disclosure, a process by which a company's documents are trawled for evidence in disputes or investigations. Information contained in electronic documents and emails can be vital in instances of competition or fraud investigations.

Kroll Ontrack found that there had been 50,000 changes to financial regulator the Financial Services Authority's rule book since 2001, a massive burden with which companies are not keeping up.