Are you getting file retention right?

How long should you keep client files after the case or matter is wrapped up? How should you store them while you have them? What parts of files should you give to clients and when? The answers to these questions are not entirely set in stone, although Illinois Supreme Court rules and ISBA ethics opinions provide many.

ISBA general counsel Charles Northrup refers attorneys and firms with uncertainties to ISBA ethics opinions 12-06 for answers to the first two questions and both 94-13 and 94-14 for guidance on sending materials to clients. "Most requirements with respect to file retention are pretty straightforward," he says.

Before getting down to brass tacks, Paul Unger, partner at Affinity Consulting, makes a couple of interrelated "gut-level" points that could apply to just about any attorney - with a simple bottom line. "The best defense to any type of malpractice claim is the file," he says. "To have the file is generally a good thing."

And while the cost of file storage and the voluminous space required traditionally has been the counterweight to keeping all files for an unlimited period, that calculus is changing rapidly because of electronic storage, Unger says. "Because the cost is so minimal, my advice is unless you really want [the file] to be gone, there's no reason to destroy it," he says.

And Unger is not exaggerating when he talks about a fraction of a penny. He says that a one terabyte hard drive costs less than $100 and can store 14,000 bankers boxes of searchable PDFs - about 30 million pages. Find out more, including why you shouldn't assume that all files should be stored for seven years, in the November Illinois Bar Journal. Also, learn about Unger's Nov. 8 live webinar on file retention.