Vladimir:  I agree 100% with everything Julie mentioned in her email, but I caution you not to expect the law firm to do any of the "culling" work for you unless you expect to pay them for their time to do it. At the close of the matter, it's a best practice for the law firm to return as much of the client file as they can get the client to take or, in the alternative, get authorization from the client to shred.  At the point where they are no longer billing time to you (the client) because the matter is closed, they won't be willing to do any records-related research for you; they'll expect you to take whole boxes, whereupon you can do the culling work yourself, or authorize shredding.  For the 22 years that I was a law firm records manager, we would not have offered that type of service to clients free of charge.  I'd be very surprised if your firm agrees otherwise, but you might have a very accommodating law firm!

--Lee

Lee R. Nemchek, MLS, CRM
Vice President, Records Management
Oaktree Capital Management, L.P.
333 South Grand Avenue, 28th Floor
Los Angeles, CA  90071

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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alfaro, Vladimir
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 9:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question about documents used in a lawsuit - Retain or not?

Thanks very much, Julie and all those who responded off line.  I really appreciate your input. At first I was inclined to shred the docs but after further consideration based on the feedback received, I believe I should have the law firm cull the files for the most important docs and shred what has no value.

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