For physical documents, designate a safe and remote place in your home where all paper documents that protect them from damage or theft are kept. For digital documents, be sure to archive and secure all electronic documents. It`s a good idea for these records to be password protected. A retention period is the length of time a document must be kept in paper and electronic form. The duration is often industry-specific and depends on the likelihood that the documents will be used for litigation in the future. There are certain documents that you need to keep, but only up to a point. They usually deal with tax documents. Historically, it`s best to keep federal and state tax returns in a safe place for seven years. In the event of a tax audit, your documents are easily accessible. Guidelines have been established on the retention period of the various documents. There are strict retention periods that every company must adhere to. Here are some common retention periods for common business records: Each type of record has different storage requirements due to the different number and type of documents that are filed and different time requirements for retention.
For example, traffic cases usually consist of only the traffic estimate and one or two other pieces of paper, and are often kept on narrow shelves or drawers. A crime or criminal record, on the other hand, can be very large and take up several inches of space in a filing cabinet or on an open shelf. More complex cases can even occupy several meters of open shelf space. In response to the filing of more applications and the availability of computers to easily create lengthy documents, the average size of court files has increased in recent years. Many states have changed their record-keeping requirements since the introduction of these rules. Depending on the state, lawyers must keep records for six or seven years, but some states are more flexible. Please consult a lawyer in your own state or do your own research to ensure your practice meets the proper record-keeping requirements before following any of the tips in this article. In 2002, the Sabarnes-Oxley Act was passed, which imposed many restrictions on a company`s records management. It defines “records” broadly as anything related to the business that can be represented by words or numbers, meaning that many records need to be managed. There are many documents that people receive every day that may need to be kept or discarded for future reference. Often, however, many of these items can be disposed of after a year.
This is because of their impact on your tax return, and once your tax return is filed and approved, you don`t need to keep it any further. Documents you should keep for one year include: monthly bank statements, monthly credit card statements, receipts for major purchases, items related to your current tax return such as charitable donations or stock purchases, and annual insurance policies. When the year is over, it is best to throw away these items because they no longer have any value. Keeping them longer creates additional stress and clutter that prevents you from feeling secure in your legal and financial planning. Some documents have a permanent retention period, while others have a shelf life of a few months to a few decades. Once the retention period has expired, the document must be disposed of properly. The choice of storage devices is probably the most critical decision when determining file space. This decision will also impact personnel and space costs for many years to come. The equipment must comply with the court`s request; Files should not be forced into outdated storage devices. Using crap or bucket files is a false economy and wasting facility staff and resources when moving to flat grading would improve efficiency.
Filing devices can be classified as fixed side shelves, open-box hanging backrests, movable side shelves, vertical drawer backrests, mechanized filing and other specialized filing devices such as card trays; reference files for running or opening reference files; large document files; computer product storage devices for print, tape, floppy disks and floppy disks; and microfilm storage devices. Retention policies are clearly an important consideration for many industries and businesses. A retention strategy is just the first step in managing all your documents. Finally, a document is reaching the end of its life and must be disposed of properly. Guidelines have also been established for the handling of these files. You expose yourself to the risk of fraud or identity theft if you simply throw away a large pile of private documents such as financial reports. Invest in a cap shredder that removes all traces of your personal data, or look for free shredding events in your community. Paperless statements and documents can help reduce the risk of identity theft from lost or stolen mail. Finally, it`s important to make sure your documents are in order so you can take control of your financial, legal, and personal life. One of the ways to improve your position is to organize your documents. Since we are all inundated with files and documents, it is important to make sure that you only keep the important items. We hope this article will enlighten you on what you need to do for your personal legal issues.
If you need help creating an estate plan, prenuptial agreement, or simply need sound advice from a Tacoma law firm you can trust, contact us at Andrews & Arbenz today to find out how we can help. Figuring out what documents to keep and which to shred – and how long to keep them – a good organizational system will help prevent things from turning into chaos and clutter. This system can be as simple as a filing system with records marked with an “expiry date” (i.e. 3 months, one year, etc.) or an online filing system with similar labels. Check your documents regularly to keep things up to date. For permanent records, scanning documents can be a good solution. Storing paper documents for a number of years will take up space. An efficient and secure way to store your documents while saving space is to use an electronic document management system.
We can also help you find a document scanning company that can convert all these paper documents into electronic records. While it may seem like a good idea to stick to everything, the resulting clutter could make it difficult to find important documents among all the unimportant documents. And even with digital documents, you can still run out of space. Planning for a new court facility should lead to a review of current case management practices. Courts often have traditional record-keeping procedures and practices that should be changed. If the court has accumulated large amounts of records, it may not have adhered to approved records retention and destruction schedules. Determining the space required for the file requires first documentation of the current filing system and then an objective analysis of the appropriateness of the current practice, including the nature of the files; number of years, records, filing fees and cubic feet of space; and the type of equipment. The table on the right shows the approximate amount of files that can be stored in different filing systems and the required area in net square feet (NSF).
No court should occupy a new facility with old and inefficient deposit equipment. The construction of a new facility is an opportunity to upgrade filing equipment to use the new space as efficiently as possible.