Here is my response in CAPS.  We already crossed this bridge in 2006, and my responses have worked for us so far.

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to get feedback from this great group of people on a the following.   I am the Records Specialist at a Boston, MA Law firm that handles a variety of law - insurance and tort litigation, business litigation, environmental, employment,  general trial, estate, probate, corporate and immigration.

Please note I am looking for feedback from other law firms only.  I am not interested in getting  emails from companies offering me programs or solutions.

I have been informed that the policy for our law firm will be that any file which has been closed for seven years can be destroyed, once we have notified the clients and given them time to respond.

Given this there are a few questions that would need to be answered before this can be implemented.

1. For insurance matters, would we need to notify the insurance company, the insured, or both? ANYONE WHO WAS THE CLIENT OR TREATED AS THE CLIENT.

2. We would need to keep all the responses on file, noting which matters have been destroyed or sent to the client. YES.

3. Would having the letter returned by the Post Office as undeliverable be sufficient due diligence to go ahead and destroy a file, or would we have to try to track down more current addresses? NO, YOU SHOULD MAKE A GOOD FAITH EFFORT, SUCH AS CHECKING INTERNET OR CORPORATE DIRECTORIES, SOME ARE FREE or YOU MAY HAVE A SUBSCRIPTION AS PART OF YOUR CONFLICTS PROCESS.

4. We would need to develop a procedure for returning files to clients who request them. YES, GENERALLY YOU PAY< JUSTIFY AS SAVING STORAGE COSTS.

5. Would we generally give the client only two options; either we send them the file or we destroy it, so we're rid of it either way. But perhaps in the case of old matters for current clients we might want to be willing to retain the file in the interest of maintaining good customer relations. ONLY TWO OPTIONS IS BEST. RETAINING OLD CRAP WILL NOT RETAIN CLIENTS, GOOD LEGAL WORK AND LOW OVERHEAD WILL.

6. We also have files in storage for lawyers that transferred to other law firms after the matter closed.  Do we need to send a letter to the lawyer as well as to the client? NO, JUST TO THE CLIENT.

Thank you all for your feedback regarding these questions posed as we embark on this very lengthy and time consuming process.

Irene Eklund
Records Specialist
Boston, MA

ANSWERS BY:

Bill Creamer
Records & Conflicts Manager
New York, New York
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