As more legal cases revolve around E-mail evidence, companies are turning to new tools to better monitor and manage E-mail usage. Before you click that send” button, ask yourself these questions: Are you able to defend the statements made in that E-mail? Are you willing to do so under oath in court? E-mail is Exhibit A in many of today’s most high-profile legal investigations and court cases. It’s being used in cases ranging from drug company Merck’s battle over the painkiller Vioxx to Jack Abramoff’s Indian lobbying scandal to the investigation of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis Libby’s involvement in leaked information about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. Despite so many highly publicized legal cases involving E-mail, only 35% of companies have E-mail retention policies, and 37% of employees say they don’t know which messages should be retained and which purged, according to surveys conducted by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, a training and consulting firm.