Guidelines launched to guard against e-mail misuse

Detailed guidelines to guard against e-mail risks and help solicitors use e-mail more effectively were launched by the Law Society last week.

The guidance, drawn up with input from the Society for Computers and the Law, provides a written e-mail policy that can be adapted to suit individual firms, and advises on issues such as staff monitoring and e-commerce.

The guidance acknowledges that solicitors need to review staff e-mails to ensure the accuracy of advice given to clients.

But it warns that where employees are also using e-mail for personal use, freely-given staff consent to monitor e-mails should be sought first.

However, no consent is needed to monitor whether communications are business-related or personal.

The guidance highlights special regulatory rules for solicitors engaged in e-commerce.

Solicitors providing services over the Internet or advertising electronically must inform clients in their electronic correspondence that they are regulated by the Law Society.

They should let clients know how to access the Society's rules, by providing a link to its Web site.

Where solicitors are sending privileged documents by e-mail, the guidelines recommend attaching to the message an automated warning that the material is privileged.

This would not have any legal force but could potentially minimise damage by, for instance, obliging a solicitor who received the document by mistake to stop reading and inform the other side.

However, any privileged document accidentally sent to a public mailing list would be likely to lose its privileged status.

The guidelines suggest that any e-mails that are subject to a statutory retention period should be printed and stored, but not all messages will need to be kept.

It highlights the difficulties sometimes associated with accessing electronically stored data, as equipment and software becomes obsolete.

The guidance also advises that individuals may have the right to access deleted e-mails containing personal information about them under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: 'The Law Society's new guidelines emphasise the advantages using e-mail can bring to law firms, courts and clients.

The guidelines will enable solicitors to manage e-mail, so that they can realise its full benefits.'

Links: www.it.lawsociety.org.uk

Rachel Rothwell