Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC
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Author: Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC
Date: February 19, 2021
The Firm
201-896-4100 info@sh-law.comAlthough Punxsutawney Phil recently predicted six more weeks of winter, warmer weather is hopefully around the corner. While your business data may not make your list when it comes to spring cleaning, it probably should. Defensible deletion can save you both time and money.
The term “defensible deletion” refers to the practice of systematically disposing of data that is no longer needed for legal, regulatory, or business purposes. Data that should be discarded typically falls into one of three categories: redundant, obsolete and trivial (“ROT”).
The premise of defensible deletion is that, in the absence of a statutory, regulatory, or other preservation obligation, information should be disposed of as soon as the likely business value of retaining it is outweighed by the costs and risks of retaining it. In most cases, it is perfectly legal to delete business data. As the Supreme Court noted in Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005):
“Document retention policies,” which are created in part to keep certain information from getting into the hands of others, including the Government, are common in business. It is, of course, not wrongful for a manager to instruct his employees to comply with a valid document retention policy under ordinary circumstances.
Numerous studies have shown that employees waste valuable time searching for key business data. According to one survey, employees spend an average of two and a half hours a day searching for information.
The amount of data that businesses collect also continues to grow exponentially. Overall, ninety percent of the world’s data was generated in the past two years. For businesses, managing the increasing amount of data, particularly electronically-stored information (“ESI”), is becoming both burdensome and expensive.
Deleting electronically stored information in a systematic and defensible way has significant benefits, including reduced data storage costs, lower risk of losing key documents, and greater efficiency and faster retrieval of data. Defensible deletion can also lower your compliance and litigation risks.
Before deleting any information, businesses must be sure that they understand what data they are storing, the value of the data to various groups in the organization, and what regulations govern the data and how long it must be retained. Below are several steps to consider:
A comprehensive records retention program allows you to quickly find information, saving both time and money. In addition, it may even assist in shielding you from liability in the event of a lawsuit or government audit. For guidance, we encourage you to work with experienced legal counsel who can help ensure that you both manage your data and protect your legal interests.
If you have any questions or if you would like to discuss the matter further, please contact me, Corey LaBrutto, or the Scarinci Hollenbeck attorney with whom you work, at 201-896-4100.
No Aspect of the advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court. Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
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