Know What To Expect In Corporate Investigations

There are benefits of being employed by a major company

. Along with those benefits, though, is the fact that we are connected to those we work with in a unique way. If someone else in the company we work for violates the law, the investigation into his or her behavior may easily affect us, since widespread managed document review is a common corporate practice today. Knowing what to expect can prepare us for this process.

Managed document review is kind of like a shotgun that large corporations use to kill an ant. Even a small, localized episode of wrongdoing can have massive legal repercussions, and during an internal investigation or while preparing for litigation it pays for a corporation to know as much about the situation as possible. To accomplish that they hire an outside investigative team to go through a huge swath of data to define the problem, discover who is involved, and determine the exact nature of the damage that has been done.

Internal company reviews are not usually conducted by law enforcement officers, so the investigators engaged to undertake them are not constrained by due process of law. Operating under a blanket mandate from the corporation, they have license to search as broadly and as invasively as they see fit. Employee privacy is far less of a concern than getting to the root of the issue.

Employees should be aware of this. The effectiveness of these investigations has been clearly documented; even top executives whose files are professionally scrubbed clean have still been indicted. So anybody who is considering an elaborate fraud scheme should think twice. Odds are that even the most brilliant plan will still leave a footprint, and a footprint is all an investigator needs.

A more likely scenario is that employee becomes aware of something being done which is unethical or illegal and chooses not to blow the whistle. This could be anything from systematic overcharging of customers to an executive's impropriety toward female staff. One of the key things investigators look for when they begin an investigation is who knew about the situation and when they knew. Just having knowledge and failing to act on it can lead to severe penalties, so it's important to live up to one's obligation to blow the whistle if it's put in your hands.

Conducting an investigation requires a lot of resources, and some companies try to get as much value from them as possible by instructing investigators to pass evidence of any employee infraction on to supervisors for discipline. So while it might be exciting to engage in a hot exchange with a lover or coworker, or to open some less-than-savory pages in your Web browser, if you do it just might come back to haunt you when the company mounts an investigation into whether an IT guy stole client information.

Most people make good employees and won't ever run the risk of encountering discipline as a result of an investigation. It's still good to bear in mind the possibility that such an investigation could take place, though, and to make sure that your files and documentation are organized and complete. Compliance paperwork, if it's required by your job, should be in order at all times, just in case an outside group needs to scour your files for information.

That shouldn't deter anybody from working with a large corporation. Just bear in mind how many people are involved in an intricate network of shared fate. Be proactive about reporting wrongdoing if you become aware of it, and keep your files well organized to facilitate managed document review if it becomes necessary.

by: cathyhiycks

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