The High Court has held that the Law Society can destroy files relating to poorly performing firms which cost it £344,000 per year to store.
The 1.5 million files come from Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) interventions into law firms. The Law Society archived the files but could not destroy them due to concerns over practice money held under statutory trust.
Delivering judgment in The Law Society (Solicitors Regulation Authority) [2015] EWHC 166 (Ch), Iain Purvis QC said the court must weigh “the cost and inconvenience of retaining the files, together with the data protection risks involved in doing so” against “the risk of damage to clients through the loss of documents of real value if the files are destroyed”.
He made an order that would allow the immediate backlog of files to be destroyed and for future files to be destroyed after seven years.
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