In today's electronic world, law firms don't keep chron files or paper timesheets anymore, because these are not considered the official record copy of the records. Timesheets are backup to what is contained in an electronic client/matter time tracking system; once time has been entered into the system and the client has received an invoice for services rendered according to the timesheet, there is no value to keeping the timesheet. In fact, keeping handwritten timesheets can actually be detrimental, as these are the equivalent of "handwritten notes." The electronic billing record is the official record, and it's the only record that needs to be retained for the duration of the firm's agreed-upon retention period for this particular record series. For chrons, these are attorney working file copies of official firm correspondence. The official record resides in the correspondence clip of a client/matter file, and there is no reason to box and store the unofficial "chron file" copies. If an attorney doesn't want to keep his chrons, they should be shredded prior to storage. There are no laws addressing these issues, only best practices based upon sound risk management principles. My two cents!
--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
p +1 213 830-6252 f +1 213 830-8504
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www.oaktreecapital.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Kurilecz
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 1:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: File Retention for Attorney Chron and Timesheets
On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Irene Eklund <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
are there any laws or regulations specifically related to attorneys? probably not, but you can start with the US Dept of Labor regulations
concerning payroll and time records. . Secondly you would need to review the operational/administrative/financial/legal/historical requirements for
these records.
now I've stayed in a Holiday Inn (just checked out a few hours ago), but that doesn't mean I'm conversant on law firm retention requirements, but I
would imagine that you would want to keep the time records related to specific cases in case the client wants to audit them or challenge the
invoice they've received
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