Michael Valentine Jones (11/20/2008)
How about telling them the guy who was keeping the records of the backup tapes left years ago, was never replaced, and you don’t have any idea how to find data for any particular date. My experience is that this is true in many organizations, so it’s a credible answer.Then offer to send them the 30,000 tapes that you have in off-site storage so they can look through them themselves. Make sure all the tapes are in obsolete physical formats with no existing working tape drives.
That should keep they busy for a while. 🙂
I get the tongue-in-cheek humor here. However, it can't just be a credible answer. If that is the truth, then maybe, but only the truth works. If they can prove or get cause for suspicion of malfeasance stuck on you, you're in a heap of stress. And if you offer 30,000 tapes, they'd most certainly request them, because the contest is about who can make who dance. Real and complete guilt is just an extra bonus, but doesn't necessarily control the contest for either side.
"Yes, your Honor, we did breach the contract, but it was due to the plaintiff leaking X and Y information on the following dates, as represented in the following exhibits of data."