Not only do they require several square feet of floor area to sit on, but full access to the drawers requires an average of 42 inches of aisle clearance. An advantage of vertical filing cabinets is that they can provide fire protection when units are specially insulated, and they do provide controlled access when equipped with locks. Locks on vertical filing cabinets are generally not of sufficient quality to actually provide security, but they can provide controlled access. Vertical filing cabinets are most suitable for small record series that are not accessed frequently and contain files in either alphabetic or topical arrangements. The lateral filing system holds side tab folders or top tab file folders which are normally filed from left to right, much the same way as in the shelf file arrangement.
Most popular units have pull-out units which permit top tab or side tab filefolders to be used.
The pull-out drawer features generally require about 30 inches of aisle clearance space for full access. These cabinets are among the most versatile of all filing units and can be used equally well for legal and letter size files. However, they are not very economical in terms of cost or floor space requirements. The cost of lateral cabinets and the space that they occupy is greater per filing inch than either vertical cabinets or shelves. Like vertical files, lateral cabinets offer the advantages of controlled access with locks and some fire resistance.