Concept
Retention and legal holds
How long the firm keeps each class of record, the nightly review list, two person destruction, and holds that stop it.
The retention classes
Every period the firm keeps records for is a retention class, under Settings, Work management, Retention classes. Each class says how long, whether that is the least the firm must keep or the life of the record, the day it counts from, and the law or rule behind it. The classes for each kind of record ship with sensible defaults and their sources; the firm's own lawyer may change them, and the firm adds classes of its own. Retention classes explains them.
A matter's file is dated by the class that covers it when the matter closes, and again each night if the class changes.
The review list
Each night the system lists records that have passed their day under Compliance, Data, Due for review. It destroys nothing. For each, someone decides to keep it longer, with a reason, or to ask for destruction.
Destruction takes two people
One person asks and a second approves. Compliance, Data, Destructions lists each request and where it stands. Before a client's closed file goes, the client is offered it back; see The client's file. The destruction is recorded with a certificate of what was destroyed, what went back to clients, and by whose decision.
Legal holds
A hold over a matter, a party or a class of document suspends retention for everything it covers:
- nothing it covers is destroyed;
- an erasure asked for under a data subject request is refused;
- a hold over a class of document also covers documents filed after it was placed.
Holds are placed and lifted under Compliance, Data, Legal holds.
Placing and lifting a hold are both audited.
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Read next
- Retention classesThe firm's own retention classes, what each covers, and how a record finds the class it is kept under.
- The client's file before destructionOffer a client their closed file and originals back before it is destroyed, record their answer, and release what they ask for.
- Close and archive a matterWork the closure checklist, clear what blocks the close, close the matter, and archive it so its file is dated for retention.
- Deleted records and restoreNothing a person deletes is destroyed. It is marked with who, when and why, stays readable on its own page, and can be restored.
- Data subject requestsLog, verify, locate and answer a request under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), within the firm's time, with every step on the record.