Preparing For The Worst Part 2: Accessing The Data You Need, When You Need It

Following on from Part 1 of this article, in the last edition of this journal, this second article looks at how to put in place effective policies and procedures to ensure that companies who need to can access their data when they need it, regardless of where it is held.

The need to access data

There are a variety of situations in which companies need to access or recover their data, for example, during legal proceedings, for the purposes of obtaining legal advice, or simply for day to day business needs.

Information which is relevant to a legal dispute will often be compulsorily disclosable and the parties will be required to conduct searches to obtain and preserve that information, pending disclosure. In many cases, information will be held in multiple locations, by many employees and senior individuals, all of whom should be required to produce relevant documents, emails and records, without amendment, or deletion, usually to the legal department or external