For many companies, facing legal challenges is a fairly common occurrence. One of the most important parts of a legal claim is often the evidence that each side has. Some businesses focus largely on traditional evidence, such as contracts, letters, emails and invoices. However, those aren’t the only pieces of evidence that can have a major impact on these cases.
Many companies are finding that internal messages, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, text threads and other platforms are now coming into these legal battles. They’re often valuable because they provide an inside look at how employees discussed product delays, contract issues, workplace conflicts or customer complaints.
Internal chats are rather risky
Many employees don’t realize how risky the internal chats can be. They often write short, sarcastic or emotional messages that lack context. When it comes to litigation, even a comment that’s meant as a joke may actually look careless if it’s read months later in court. The message about covering the mistake could be interpreted as evidence of knowledge or intent, even if that’s not what the sender meant.
It’s important for companies to recognize that discovery can include electronically stored information. That information can cover chat logs, shared channels, phone messages, direct messages and attachments that are exchanged through platforms the workplace uses. Anything that’s relevant to a dispute and not protected by privilege or another rule can be searched, preserved and used in court.
Some people believe that chat systems are more private than other options, like emails. However, many platforms store messages for long periods of time, which may be dependent upon company settings. Even deleted messages may remain available for legal cases because of backups, exports and retention tools.
Internal chat is a useful option for quick chats, but it’s critical that employees always remember that these chats can be used as evidence, oftentimes even the messages that were deleted. They must use sound judgment, a professional tone and careful wording to prevent potential issues from occurring.
When internal chats become part of a legal matter, the company may find itself trying to explain underlying meanings and combat how the other party construes the information. It may be beneficial for these companies to work with someone familiar with these matters so they can explore their options, and it may help to address the issue of internal chats by setting clear rules for this communication method before an issue creeps up.