Why Does the Federal Records Act Urge Companies to Develop a Document Retention Schedule
For a sound ediscovery policy, the Federal Records Act recommends development of a document retention schedule. Frequently employees are uncertain about the ediscovery laws to be followed, staff files to be retained and the legal record keeping needs. Today most federal as well as state agencies have clear requirements for the retention of records and laws that need to be followed. These laws cover government subcontractors, contractors as well as employers.
In order to make sure that you do not violate these laws, a good documents retention program is a must. eDiscovery laws specify that all email messages in between employees, or those sent out by employees, must be kept for records. Apart from emails, other files like Excel or Word can also be presented in the court of law as evidence. So periodic record and storage of all the files in a protected database is essential. Not only the record of data, but the rules regarding deletion must also be specified in the schedule.
In case these electronic records are needed in the court, it is necessary for a company to be able to show that even before the request was sent, they were in compliance with the law. It is not sufficient to begin recording and keeping a database of these files after the court order comes in, because if that is the case then a hefty fine could be levied on your firm. For this reason the Federal Records Act encourages companies to develop a retention schedule for all documents.
Developing such a schedule is not so simple. As far as paper documents are concerned, recordkeeping is simple. Electronic documents require careful management to avoid harm or deletion and disturbance to the routine functions of the company. Creation of a separate team exclusively for proper retention of electronics documents may be necessary.
Having the right documents retention schedule will not only keep you and your company on the right side of the law, but it will also save you a lot of money in the case of a court order. Like Morgan Stanley, there are a number of companies that have had to pay a fine for not complying with these laws. This results in loss of money as well as goodwill.
The main federal records act changed the way our organization positioning files; learn more about how much governing administration office staff want to find out attached to all of our web property.
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