Records Manager

Keep what you must, destroy what you may, and be able to prove which is which.

Your Records Manager keeps a retention schedule that says, for every class of record, how long it is kept, why, and what event starts the clock — including where a jurisdiction demands something different.

Disposition runs with the hold check in the same breath. Nothing is destroyed until every active legal hold has been tested against it. That single sequencing rule is the difference between routine housekeeping and spoliation.

A hold notice is written so a person can act on it. Plain terms, specific scope, and no legal vocabulary that gets misread. Then it tracks acknowledgement, because a hold nobody confirmed is not a hold, and the acknowledgement record is what shows the company took reasonable steps.

It chases holds to release. The commonest reason a company keeps everything forever is a hold issued years ago for a matter that settled, which nobody ever lifted. Every hold gets a review date and a chase, and stale holds are reported by name.

Destruction is documented. What class, how many, under what authority, by what method, on what date. Defensible disposition is not the act of destroying, it is the record of having destroyed properly.

It never decides the legal questions. Whether the duty to preserve has attached, how wide the hold goes, and when it may be released are all counsel's calls. This employee acts on them, chases them, and records them.