[rpaddock]

Some companies want no records at all, see:

"2028 – A Dystopian Story By Jack Ganssle":

http://www.ganssle.com/articles/2028adystopianstory.htm

Known as ’The Rule of 26’, which is sometimes given as a reason NOT to keep engineering notebooks etc. By Federal Rule 26 you are guilty if you did not volunteer the records before they are requested. Including any backups.

From Cornel Law:

LII Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

Rule 26. Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery

(a) Required Disclosures.

(1) Initial Disclosure.

(A) In General. Except as exempted by Rule 26(a)(1)(B) or as otherwise stipulated or ordered by the court, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other parties:

(i) the name and, if known, the address and telephone number of each individual likely to have discoverable information—along with the subjects of that information—that the disclosing party may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment;

(ii) a copy—or a description by category and location—of all documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things that the disclosing party has in its possession, custody, or control and may use to support its claims or defenses, unless the use would be solely for impeachment; …

https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_26

[kjs3]

Much of my experience with corporate counsel is one of 2 extremes: "keep everything"[1] or "keep nothing". Keep everything, because then you can't be caught out deleting something possibly relevant, which looks very, very bad in court. Keep nothing, because then opposing counsel can't catch you out only keeping things that make you look good in court.

[1] There's actually a subset of this, which includes "...until you are legally allowed to delete it, then delete everything". This is driven by regulation (e.g. SOX in the US).

[djoldman]

This was interesting and sent me down a research hole.

General conclusion:

Corporate litigation is mostly just a series of self-investigations so that both sides can learn what both sides actually know, given that neither side knows much about themselves OR the other side. At the same time both sides are trying to stop the other side from getting the judge to order them to do more investigating.

[next_xibalba]

See also the OpenAI vs. Musk trial, where Greg Brockman's diary and Sam Altman's texts have taken center stage.

[awgfawgag]

"2028 – A Dystopian Story By Jack Ganssle"

If Mark Z was exactly himself but not successful and filled with resentment, he would write something like this. The smugness, the egotism of that story. It's so obvious that engineer types, like almost all middle class variations, are part of the problem and somehow think they are the solution. Bleh.