I think the American Mortgage case was about improper disposition - aka security failure - not holding onto records longer than their defined retention period.

Most retention schedules define the MINIMUM required retention, not the maximum.  Best practice would indicate that records be destroyed as soon as practical after meeting their retention period, but as stated earlier, the issue comes from consistent application of policy, not timing overall.

If your process is to destroy every December 1 for the previous year's expired records, then you're conceivably keeping some records nearly a full year past it's retention.  A court won't care about that, but they will care if you destroy records haphazardly (without a routine schedule that can be proven to have been followed over time).

You will be hard pressed to find a case regarding retention periods that isn't at it's root an issue of inconsistent behavior (including or excluding malfeasance).

Just my two cents ...

Julie

Sent from my iPhone

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