Patent ID: 7805472

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a file plan including a plurality of containers including a first and second containers, wherein the first and second containers provide management information for documents, and wherein the containers are arranged in a hierarchical relationship, wherein a plurality of containers are arranged in a hierarchy defining containers as descendants and ancestors of each other, and wherein the first container is a descendant of the second container in the hierarchical relationship; defining a plurality of disposition schedules for the first and second containers at different levels of the hierarchy, wherein each disposition schedule provides at least one disposition rule to use to determine when to dispose of a document assigned to the first container in the file plan to which the disposition schedule applies, and wherein the rules of the disposition schedules defined for the first and second containers are different; determining at least two disposition schedules that apply to one accessed document, wherein a first of the determined disposition schedules is defined in information for the first container in the file plan providing management information for the accessed document and wherein a second of the determined disposition schedules is defined in the information for the second container; and applying the determined at least two disposition schedules in the file plan from the first and second containers to document metadata for the accessed document in the file plan assigned to the first container to determine whether to dispose of the accessed document by performing: applying at least one disposition schedule from the container to which the document whose document metadata is being considered is assigned; and applying at least one disposition schedule from each container having at least one disposition schedule and that is an ancestor to the container to which the document is assigned.