/
News
Document Scanning and Records Retention Requirements for Law Firms
How document scanning helps law firms meet long retention requirements without drowning in paper.
/
1 min read
Written by
Daniela Marchetti
Through its extensive and comprehensive approach, the legal industry often necessitates copious mountains of paper usage. Due to various acts and bylaws focused on record retention, legal professionals quickly find themselves surrounded by paper.
For example, notable instances within the Law Society of Upper Canada requirements are Bylaw 9; Section 23(1) and Section 23(2), which require certain documents to be kept for a minimum of 6 and 10 years respectively. Further, the Income Tax Act demands that at least the previous 6 years of documents are maintained.
The Problem with Paper Records
This rapidly becomes problematic for several reasons.
First, if the paper is kept on-site, it is using valuable square footage that could be utilized in a better form. If the documents are kept off-site, hefty storage costs arise. Associated with that, shipping the documents when needed is an additional expensive process.
Second, paper files assorted in boxes are largely inconvenient and difficult to access. This is unacceptable, given documents must be ‘readily accessible’ and able to be produced in 30 days. Eugene Cipparone, a director of professional support at Goodmans LLP, disclosed that Goodmans has paper files dating back to the 1960s in an offsite storage facility, undoubtedly a needlessly expensive and inefficient method of storage.
How Document Scanning Helps Law Firms
Octacom provides outsourced and efficient document scanning and imaging services providing the following advantages:
Reduce storage costs
Eliminate courier costs for file retrievals
Decrease turnaround times on sourcing legal records by increasing file accessibility
Improve document security
By utilizing Octacom’s customer-centric document scanning and imaging services and its Odiss software, law firms (legal professionals) can rapidly recognize the massive cost and efficiency benefits.
Octacom has worked with many law firms providing document scanning and imaging solutions. Contact us to learn more!
