Amended Rule 1.15 RPC, and the Need for S.C. Law Firms to Implement File Retention Policies
On March 1, 2012, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an Order amending Rule 1.15, "Safekeeping Property," of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct . Minimum File Retention Requirement and Adoption of a File Retention Policy Rule 1.15(i) establishes for the first time in South Carolina the requirement for an attorney or law firm to maintain client files after they are closed for a minimum of 6 years (unless the file is delivered to the client or the client has authorized destruction of the file and no pending or threatened legal proceedings are known to the lawyer). If the client does not request the file within 6 years following the end of the representation, the lawyer may destroy the file unless pending or threatened legal proceedings are known to the lawyer. The last sentence of Comment 13 to Rule 1.15(i) will be of particular interest to the Bar: "Attorneys and firms should create file retention policies and clearly communicate these