NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Elisabeth Roscher, Tine Vigmostad, Geir Sviggum and Kristin Nordland Brattli, Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS
5.6 Documentation and Evidence Preservation The Norwegian Bar Association has issued guidelines on private investigations – these would not directly apply to all types of fact-find- ing exercises, though the guidelines do provide a good overview of best practices in investiga- tions. Further, there are procedural requirements for civil disputes or criminal investigations. In civil litigation procedures, companies also have a general duty of truth and disclosure under Sec- tion 21-4 of the Dispute Act, as well as certain more specific disclosure obligations under Sec- tions 21-5 and 26-5 of the Dispute Act (although significantly less far-reaching than discovery obligations in the USA, for example). Thus, a company’s lack of gathering and preservation of relevant documentation and evidence may in some cases violate such procedural obligations, despite the absence of any general statutory obligation with regards to evidence preservation. Naturally, internal practical procedures for gathering and preserving documentation and evidence vary based on the company and documentation in question. Many entities have comprehensive documentation and reporting systems with detailed logs and records, while others rely to a greater extent on manual infor- mation gathering from employees. 5.7 Settlements It is possible to enter into settlement arrange- ments for litigation proceedings which are derived from a crisis situation. 5.8 Insurance It is fairly common for insurance policies to be adopted by companies to cover potential civil liability. Such insurance policies may cover (inter
alia) the liabilities of the company as a legal enti- ty or of the board of directors, or other types of professional liability. Some insurance policies may also be related to specific sectors or risks – for example, insurance related to environmental damage or insurance for cases where the com- pany has been exposed to financial crime. Some insurance covers legal and litigation costs, while some companies also take out a separate insur- ance covering legal assistance. Insurance com- panies are, however, prohibited from providing insurance covering criminal liability (Section 7-1 of the Insurance Business Act and Section 2-6 of the Financial Institutions Act). 5.9 Reputation Management The impact of a crisis on a company’s reputation may be measured through (for example): • media analysis; • stakeholder surveys and feedback; • market surveys and analysing stock-market drops; and • revenue and sales impacts. Common steps taken to rebuild a company’s reputation post-crisis may include: • transparent communication (eg, public state- ments); • promptly implementing crisis response plans; • policy revisions and auditing; • rebranding and marketing; and • corporate social responsibility initiatives. However, the most important form of reputa- tional management is to ensure that: • communication is part of the task force in the crisis management team; • a communications plan is drafted early on to cater to all possible scenarios; and
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