But it's not as simple as just saving your e-mails, instant messages, and documents, says Bill Lyons, CEO of records-compliance management company AXS-One. It's not even as simple as having them easily retrieved. "What you want [in an e-mail] is an immutable copy," he advises.

Everyone knows that the contents of an e-mail can be altered before it's stored. Companies need to stop that e-mail in the network, make a copy, and then send it on. In other words, there has to be a "chain of custody" for each and every communication. Typical backup and restore procedures were not designed for this.

"CIOs need a policy-based retention system that is workflow based on event or time," Lyons says. If you can't segregate e-mails by policy -- say you saved five years of e-mails instead of only three -- you have increased your liability, because whatever you've saved is fair game for discovery.

Dickey suggests that companies look at the Sedona Principles, a set of best practices for e-discovery developed by the Sedona Conference, comprising leading lawyers and jurists. He says 80 percent of the cost of litigation is due to discovery. (Well, he's a lawyer, but it's got to be at least equal to the legal fees.) If you don't have a modern electronic system, it could cost you millions to dig through old tapes -- or worse, paper -- to find what you need.

If you think calling the changes to Rules 26 and 37(f) "Chernobyl" is a bit of hyperbole, well then, you can always sit back, do nothing, and wait for the fallout.