Software metrics guru Capers Jones has written an article called "Probablilities of Year 2000 Damages." This article can currently be found on Peter DeJager's website at http://www.year2000.com/archive/proby2k.html. By his own admission in the abstract, Jones' numbers in this article have "a high margin of error." However, Jones' guesses are probably as good as a lot of other people's facts, so let's work with them for now.

Assuming that the fundamentals of civilization are functioning after 1/1/00, there are will probably be a lot of problems left to cope with. For example, Jones puts the probability of your getting a blot on your credit report due to erroneous reporting at a whopping 70%. The potential errors in your first January paycheck are placed at 30%. Errors in bank account balances: 15%. We've seen a lot of discussion about survival level preparations. What sort of preparations, if any, are people here making to protect themselves against these types of problems?

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), August 29, 1998

Answers

Other threads have had excellent lists of what to document, but basically it's anything and everything of consequence to you financially, from Social Security records to bank balances, birth records, divorce papers, etc. Most court documents are still hard copies, but having the documents in hand facilitates the search for the originals.

I plan on requesting certified copies if possible, that is, signed by a notary public; I don't think it has a lot of legal weight in court, but is one extra step toward guaranteeing the authenticity of the documents in hand.

One thing I plan on preparing for is frustration on everybody's part as the errors are straightened out, especially my own frustration. I used to work in the clerical field, and know that while there are ways around the constraints placed upon the person who merely answers the phone, the quality of customer service in banking, insurance and most payroll departments will probably decline significantly until things straighten out.

I also expect to run into people who can't make a sale without their cash register, as well as companies shut down because their non-compliant supplier, or their compliant supplier's non-compliant supplier is experiencing difficulties.

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@hotmail.com), October 11, 1998.