Records Management News

Good Record Keeping Lessons Learned the Hard Way

The field of records management seems to be gaining prominence in the news lately. Prosecutors and judges have very little tolerance for individuals or businesses that do not follow legal records retention schedules when they make decisions to destroy records. One of the biggest cases to come about recently has involved Frank Quattrone, a former technology banker for Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Quattrone was found guilty of obstruction of justice for sending out an email that told employees, "before you leave for the holidays, you should catch up on file cleaning." It seems like an innocent enough message for an executive to write. Mr. Quattrone, however, made the mistake of hitting the send button after he had been informed by this company's lawyers that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating First Boston to determine whether or not the bank forced investors to pay it kickbacks for hot stock tips. By encouraging people to destroy documents after he had been informed that there was a litigation hold on the company's records, Mr. Quattrone was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 2 years probation, and a $90,000 fine.

Cases such as this illustrate the importance of good record keeping practices and highlight the need for offices at the University of Washington to follow their State Approved Records Retention Schedules. And always remember, regardless of retention period, records pertaining to litigation, audits, or public records requests must not be destroyed until the issue is resolved.

Join us on October 13th or 15th for "Buried Alive", a video case study of records litigation gone wrong!