As stated above, Attorneys are urged to include a paragraph in their retaining agreements setting forth how documents will be retained or destroyed upon conclusion of the matter. The guidelines set forth below offer a check list of considerations for developing such an agreement. A copy of a document need not be kept after the original has been returned to the client or other owner. All documents shall be kept six years from the date of completion of services rendered by an attorney. This is no safe harbor.
Some older firms have files going back to the turn of the century.
The attorney must also exercise his or her judgment as to retaining certain documents which may be important to the interests of the attorney. All original documents signed by the client and documents conferring or imposing legal rights or obligations shall be kept six years from date of such signing or the cessation of such rights or obligations whichever is longer. No such document shall be destroyed until the client or owner is mailed written notice at least 30 days before destruction of the document. This guideline recognizes that many documents are the property of the client, not the attorney and the attorney may have no rights to destroy them, ever. The notice provision is considered a reasonable time of notice allowing an attorney to claim abandonment.