Two common criticisms of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission have been the length of time investigations take and the enormous costs they impose on private parties. The issues raised by those criticisms have grown in significance in recent years as the SEC staff has used vague and overbroad subpoenas and requests for documents in the age of email and electronically stored information. Unduly broad requests for electronic documents slow the production process, extend investigations, and significantly increase the associated costs.
Without sacrificing enforcement goals, the staff of the Division of Enforcement could use narrower, more specifically tailored document requests, which would speed up investigations, allow the agency to allocate its resources more efficiently, reduce costs for recipients of the requests, and treat those recipients more fairly. As a bonus, more limited document requests would be far more likely to satisfy the legal requirements governing the validity of administrative subpoenas. The purpose of this article is to discuss these issues.
