Are you the master or the slave of your legal practice document management system?

Have you ever spent more time than you thought you should have searching for the right information to complete a task? Have you ever looked for a document which was labelled incorrectly or filed in the wrong client's file?

Searching for information which should have been within an easy reach is frustrating, inefficient and a waste of time.

Mastering the information chaos of your paper based or computerised document management system is not rocket science. It is actually achievable through the design and implementation of document and record control procedures.

I already discussed the document control procedure in my previous post. Now I turn to the LAW 9000 requirement for a records control procedure.

Definitions

Records - in the context of a legal practice include client communications, feedback, purchasing, corrective action reports, staff training, audits, meeting minutes, trust account, insurance, computer system backups and other internal and external records.

Compliance requirements

Besides being a good business practice records control is a mandatory requirement under your legal profession legislation.

For example under the Western Australian Legal Profession Act 2008 trust records must be kept in permanent form which means printed or capable of being printed. Where a legal practice maintains a computerised accounting system it will be necessary to ensure that a backup copy of all records is kept in a separate location.

The Regulations prescribe time frames:

• within 15 working days after the end of the month trust records are to be printed

• backup copies of trust records are to be made not less frequently than once a month

• trust account receipts must be recorded within 5 working days

• trust account payments must be recorded within 5 working days

• trust account receipts payments or transfers must be recorded in the trust ledger accounts within 5 working days

• reconciliation of trust records must be prepared within 15 working days after the end of the month

• written notification to the Legal Practice Board of the establishment or closure of a trust account must be within 14 days.

Your legal practice should also comply with the identification, storage and retention requirements for your trust account and other records.

Unless you have a records control procedure communicated to all, is reinforced and records are audited regularly it would be hard to imagine that you are the master of your practice's information chaos.

Hints on drafting a records control procedure

You may find it useful having the answers to the following questions handy before drafting a document control procedure:

• Have you identified your quality records? These are the records you need to control. See examples in the enclosed procedure.
• Do you have a method for collecting, indexing, accessing, filing, storing, maintaining, and disposing of your internal and external quality records?
• Who ensures that records are maintained in your practice?
• How do you ensure that records can be traced and located quickly?
• If you are storing records externally do you have a written process about controlling and accessing those records?

For an example of a document control procedure see the embedded procedure below.

Document control procedure for legal practices from Val Antoff

In the next post I will discuss further the requirements for records control under the LAW 9000 standard with emphasis on pre-engagement communication records.