Law firms should stop the practice of saving e-mails simply by printing them out and instead move to electronic storage, according to the Law Society and Legal IT Innovators Group (LITIG).

The call came as research carried out for the 2006 edition of the Society's Software Solutions guide revealed that more than a third (36%) of 623 buyers of IT at small to mid-size law firms say they store e-mails in hard copy form.


LITIG - whose member firms include top corporate firms Allen & Overy, Pinsent Masons and Wragge & Co - last month released an updated guideline on records of e-mails that it has agreed with the Society and which allows for storage in 'a suitably managed electronic storage system'. The advice will be included in a new version of the Society's full e-mail guidelines to be published shortly.


Although the revised guideline on records still permits the practice of printing e-mails, LITIG and the Law Society recommend appropriate electronic storage as the way forward.


LITIG secretary Peter Owen said: 'This is a great move. The new guidelines open the door to properly managed electronic storage, which will bring many benefits to law firms, including far greater evidential value.'


One reason to keep e-mails in their digital form is the 'metadata' contained inside them. This provides an audit trail of sending, receiving and composing - the ability to say who sent an e-mail, for example, can be as important as the message's content.


The Law Society agreed that digital storage should prevail, provided it is done well.


A spokeswoman said: 'The right electronic storage system, properly managed and protected, can have a number of advantages over paper records. We anticipate that solicitors will increasingly make use of them to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and security of their practices.'


Link: www.litig.org