Nell, I’m sorry the system let you down and I understand your frustration. I am days away from my hearing and representing myself since I couldn’t find an attorney with the time and motivation to help me – even though I was fully willing to pay.

I tried posting on your 101 page, but kept getting booted – but here’s my input:

To your comments above, I would add – talk with every finance and CPA friend you have and understand how the work you do fits into the finance side using ‘finance speak’. Research auditing standards and COSO guidelines, and get internal SOX flowcharts. Be able to map how the IT issue would hit the financial statements – whether that’s through reporting errors internally or an external threat.

Find out what kind of IT insurance products your company carries. Many policies have line item descriptions of what they do and don’t cover, and the newer the IT issue, the more likely its a separate product or a policy exclusion. (i.e. Data privacy can be an ‘add-on’.) Does the company represent in its financials that its adequately insured? Could the company argue successfully that it’s an insured risk, so complaints aren’t ‘reasonable’. If you can go so far as to get the annual applications where the company represents its forms of security – are they accurate?

I don’t know if this will help anyone, but the possibility is a good stress reliever for me right now.