RETENTION OF CERTIFICATES OF DESTRUCTION
How long should Certificates of Destruction be retained after the related records are destroyed?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie J. Colgan, CRM on -
Hi Patricia, in my experience, CoDs are kept as "permanent" records. In the event you are ever asked to produce a record that has been destroyed (by a client, in response to a subpoena, etc.), you need proper documentation proving it was destroyed, when, and why ("defensible destruction" if you will).
If you don't like the term "permanent", you might try of "life of firm/partnership/corporation", whatever fits your particular entity.
Best,
Julie -
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Permalink Reply by Christie Narver, CRM on -
I agree with Julie, life of the 'firm'. Scanning them onto a CD is an alternative to keeping the paper copies. We seem to be doing more and more scanning of our 'permanent' documents.
Christie Narver, CRM
Rutan & Tucker, LLP -
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Permalink Reply by Patricia S. Brackin on -
Thanks, Julie; that is what I thought as well. The question had come up in our department, and there were some who felt they could be disposed of 3 to 7 years after the records were destroyed.
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Permalink Reply by Julie J. Colgan, CRM on
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No problem Patricia. Your response made me giggle a little ... so what do you do with the Certificate of Destruction for the Certificates of Destruction that your colleagues were proposing be destroyed ...? :)
And to Christie's comment about scanning - I agree. We scan CoDs as well as Engagement Letters and Waiver Letters (and other "life of firm" material) to our document management system and store the images there (rather than on CDs). CDs/DVDs work ok too, however I worry far more about the stability of external media (and its potential for rapid degredation due to environmental stresses) than I do about our networked storage devices.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Julie -
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Permalink Reply by Patricia S. Brackin on
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Yes, Julie. I agree that, when feasible, anything to be retained permanently should be scanned to the firm's document management system. Like you, I'm uncomfortable with the long-term viability of removable media.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Lewis on
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Julie -- You always answer before I can and in a better way than I could. The only caveat I would add to scanning engagment letters is you may want to keep the originals as sometimes a judge will require the original signature. I have heard this in one case where a firm was trying to get payment from a client.
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Permalink Reply by Julie J. Colgan, CRM on
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Ha! Jeff! You are always so kind!
A great point you make about keeping the "inked" copy of ELs (and Waivers, for that matter). For contractual documents such as that, particularly when they cover fiduciary issues, the imaged copy is more about convenience of reference and as a redundant copy for DR purposes.
Also, a shout out to my friend Scott McVeigh who I was chatting with earlier today ... he does not scan CoDs at all. Granted, he works for a VERY large corporation so their volume of CoDs would make scanning unweildy as well as not very cost effective. Sometimes paper is cheaper, and it never requires Eyeballs 2.0. :)
Nice discussion everyone! And can't wait to see you in a few days, Jeff!
Julie -
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