E-mail Warning

One of the more interesting stories in the news now relates to the Merck withdrawal of Vioxx due to heart problems in some persons who have taken the drug for arthritis. Any time something like this happens, the lawyers start up the class action apparatus to sue for as much as possible with as many plaintiffs as possible--even if they have had no drug related problems and never will have any. The drug company is then sent into full defensive mode and tries to explain that their activities are all proper and no legal remedy should be enforced. When the lawyers start looking into the company activities, however, one thing always seems to give them fodder. That is employee E-mails. People send these out with such little thought and with such off the cuff opinions that the company is put at an almost impossible disadvantage when preparing for legal encounters. This has been true for every company that has come under scrutiny in the last 10 years. I am immediately reminded of poor Bill Gates trying to survive an interrogation about his E-mails. If I were a CEO, I might be tempted to do away with them in my company.