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Mind the metadata.

Article Excerpt
Lawyers send documents to opposing counsel all the time. But when they provide electronic copies, they may also be providing their opponents with critical information about their thinking.

Consider the implications. How would your client feel if he or she learned that you had sent strategies and other confidential information to opposing counsel? While you swear you would never do such a thing, you may already have unwittingly done so. And it may be entirely ethical for your opponent to read the metadata. Regardless, your client--and your malpractice carrier--will not be pleased.

Metadata, which means "information about data," is compiled by many common software programs, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as Corel WordPerfect. Microsoft advises users that metadata--most of which is invisible on your computer screen--may contain names; initials; company or organization names; other file properties and summary information; the names of other authors of the document; and information about revisions, including other versions, hidden text, comments, and the time spent editing the document. If you track changes to a document, for example, most if not all of your tracked changes will be shown in the metadata.

Lawyers who send or file electronic copies of documents without removing the metadata risk serious problems. In 2004, the SCO Group, a software company, filed lawsuits against Daimler-Chrysler and AutoZone. A reporter reviewed the metadata in the complaint, which was filed electronically, and discovered...

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