The Federal Regulations of Civil Procedures imposes, as the name implies,
regulations on the procurement of evidence in Federal cases and imposes
liabilities on organizations that are not in compliance with the law. The FRCP was
amended in December, 2006 requiring that all organizations must meet the
discovery requirements. In the event of a civil litigation, all electronically stored
information (ESI) such as email and instant messaging communications relating
to the case must be produced by the affected institution. FRCP does not explicitly
mandate archiving these types of communication records, but does impose
penalties for not being able to produce relevant ESI when mandated by a court of
law.