<Are there any legal protections for the RM's?  Can someone explain
liability insurance or any other legal protection RM's might have?>

Only the same legal protections for any employee doing their job.  The
best protection is well documented policies and procedures and clear,
well documented audit trails when we follow those policies and
procedures.  All policies should go through an approval process -
generally top management, governing board, and counsel approval at the
very least.  All procedures should be distributed and training held -
AND records kept that document the distribution and training.  I have
documentation for ALL procedures and I have policies that cover all RM
functions I am responsible for.  

Clearly documenting activity that becomes part of an audit trail and
covering my behind as the RM is why I do not rely on blanket approval of
retention values as license to destroy records. The existence of an
approved retention schedule as "approval" to destroy records in
accordance with the schedule does not generate enough audit trail to
protect me, the RM.  I notify the "owners" of the processes
generating/maintaining those records when destruction is scheduled for
any of their records.  I require them to notify me of any holds and the
reason for the holds.  I also require them to sign the notification as
acknowledgement that they were indeed notified.  These notifications are
kept with the destruction log as part of the audit trail.  I do this for
all media - including electronic records/data/objects.  The
notifications are not cumbersome or voluminous or time consuming to
generate, but they sure give me some sense of security.

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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