As a result, your company may lose the ability to perform the accounting, payroll, inventory and other data processing functions that are vital to your own and your customers' ongoing businesses. Computer experts have been aware of the Year 2000 problem for many years. However, the millions of companies and individuals who use the vast interconnected data processing apparatus upon which all commerce now depends have only recently begun to recognize the magnitude of the problem. The technology glitches which give rise to the Year 2000 problem are not easily fixed. It's a time-consuming and labor intensive job requiring the review, reprogramming and testing of millions of lines of computer code written in arcane, and sometimes almost obsolete, computer languages.
Some estimates exceed the one trillion dollar mark.
Putting the cost of remediation or replacement aside, at this point there simply may not be enough time left for all companies to become Year 2000 compliant before the turn of the century. The net result of all of these considerations is that the Year 2000 problem is a huge problem to which there appears to be no easy solution. Lawsuits arising from the Year 2000 problem will not be limited to the obvious disputes between software vendors and computer users over liability for defective software. With all these possible lawsuits on the horizon, you must act now to ensure that your in-house counsel and outside litigators are preparing and properly positioning your company to win. The first step that your lawyers should take to protect you and your corporation is to identify, in the context of a comprehensive audit, the legal and factual issues the company will have to face as a result of the Year 2000 problem.