Increasingly, the rationale for implementing a records management and retention policy is not simply to manage space, data storage, and their associated costs, but also to limit legal fees, and increase certainty, in e-discovery. Limiting the number of records to be searched at the outset of e-discovery is the first and most important step in managing the process.
In many instances, the length of time a record must be kept is governed by statute or regulation. However, once that time requirement has passed, or in the absence of a specific retention requirement, the focus must shift to providing a rationale for keeping the record, as opposed to keeping all records by default. Although it may initially seem counterintuitive, an effective retention policy does not so much mandate record retention as plan their orderly destruction.
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Previously published in BarTalk - December 2015
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