• Verification of Identity (VOI) regulations and Mandatory Data Breach Notification up the ante in the need for secure retention of legal files - The flow of regulation, legislation and public opinion means now more than ever, that its important for practitioners to ensure legal files and the confidential information contained within are securely stored and protected from loss or theft. Read more about the implications of the changes and how FileSaver's legal file archiving solutions can help.
• End of Financial Year prompt to sort out your firm's archiving - If you've been thinking about a better approach to closed file archiving, now is a great time start with our services. Register your interest by 30 June and sign up by 15 July for 7 years' storage of the first month's files at no charge. There's no-obligation but registering your interest could lead to immediate and lasting improvements in this aspect of your business. 
• Spotlight on David Petty Conveyancing - David Petty runs a busy conveyancing practice in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. David's been a long-term client of FileSaver. He's grown his business in good times, and been successful even through the market's occasional quiet periods. David puts his success down to his focus on the customer. Follow the link below to an interview with David in which he talks about his business and why he's clocked up almost 10 years as a FileSaver client.

There's an ever increasing burden of responsibility on lawyers and conveyancers for the safe-keeping of property transaction files. 

At the same time as Verification of Identity (VOI) regulations requires long-term retention of copies of more  highly confidential information than has been required to be retained in the past, the federal government is set to strengthen privacy laws by requiring mandatory Data Breach Notification (DBN), and to increase penalties for breaches. 

It would be a very unfortunate and potentially costly irony if the personal documents provided by a client to validate their identity and protect them from fraud were subsequently used to defraud or violate the client's privacy due to the records being lost, accessed without authorisation or stolen whilst in the care of the lawyer or conveyancer.

The client, regulators and the Privacy Commissioner are unlikely to accept as a defence "But we've always stored our records that way"

Storing closed files in the garage, open shelves in the office or self-storage (communal storage) are fraught with risk. Times have changed and so should the response to secure long-term file retention.

Read more here about these developments and FileSaver's services to assist with the secure long-term retention of legal files.