California Surveyors Forums

I'm starting to retire my licenses, all except for CA. Can someone tell me how long I need to hang onto my old project files that date back to 1980?

That's a real tough question.
I remember keenly sitting at a deposition table about 20 years ago with a Dozen opposing attorneys and the Atty representing me (on the payroll of a former employer). We were there all damned day.

The project files had been deposed, everyone at the table had copies long before the deposition.
We went thru everything, several times.
Near the end a discussion between the Opposing Attys started, should they depose All of my Personal Records?
That would have been quite onerous, a huge personal burden.
The saving grace was the fact that they were all offshore ... archived in my office in Mexico.
*they ended up deciding to not depose them, if they actually could.

My Atty gave me big Kudos in the elevator.
At the curb she said thanks and made a passing comment "attorneys don't keep records".

It is my opinion is that all project field notes, calc's, resolution notes along with any acquired notes, documents and old unrecorded maps obtained from outside sources that are pertinent to the project should kept indefinitely. All other information I would get rid of, keeping only that information that might be needed for the IRS.
Saying this, I sold my business of 30 years along with all the files, I kept only those files and information that were of a personal nature so my choice was easy. My only requirement and desire of the new owners was that my maps and records would be available to other surveyors, if requested.
If I wasn't able to sell my practice, I was prepared to offer all my files to the county surveyor.

Lee:

I hope this message finds you well.

In the last three weeks DWA purged the survey files through 2013. Since then, two files were needed, one from 2005 and the other from 2007. Although the purge was discussed for over a year, it appears to have been a hasty decision. The alternative was to touch each file and scan it, which wasn't much of an option. Most of the expert files for litigation files were saved.

There was a published purge schedule based on statute of limitations that I had read many years ago. I recall construction projects had a 10 year purge schedule. I cannot find the schedule.

The employee records and financial information was not purged.

Not much help, but some recent experience.

DWoolley

Lee,

My experiences cross over with the experiences posted by Peter, Gary, and Dave but had another twist that may be helpful for you to be on the watch for. I was a principle in a small firm for 15 years in SoCal, but the records for the firm went back to the mid-70's. We came up with a plan to reduce volume of old files by developing a checklist of which documents could be purged vs. electronically scanned/saved. As Dave mentioned, since the potential for touching each document in each file was immense, we used that checklist and whoever had a spare few hours, spent time on some of the files. Over about a year, we were able to archive the oldest documents up until a more recent timeframe for business/tax/legal purposes. Older files held more documents that required scanning while more recent files held lots of printouts from electronic files. Since we already had a process for archiving electronic files, the recent documents required less scanning.

The twist is that I eventually left that firm and opened my own shop (which I eventually closed coming to the Board). One of the other principles eventually left and the firm closed its doors just a few years ago after the passing of the remaining two principles. Now I have no idea where all those archives are, what shape they are in, or if they even exist any longer. And I had one occasion where another surveyor reached out to me on a control point which I was not able to assist them much since I could no longer access the records or talk to anyone that knew any info.

Unnerved by the prospect of the "indefinite" advice above, I did some searching and found a thread on the topic from 2015 that seems to be relevant. I'll post the link below for reference but the final post by Evan is worth talking about:

"The Statute of Limitations is 3 years after the defect has been or should have been discovered.

The Statute of Repose is 10 years after substantial completion of the work.

The way that works is if an actionable error is found in the surveyors work, the damaged party has a 3 year window from the time the error
was discovered to file suit, but once 10 years has elapsed since the survey was completed, it's too late. So if the landowner finds an error
that has caused him damage 4 years after the survey was completed, he has 3 more years to file suit. If the error is found 9 years after the
survey was completed, he has only 1 year left to file suit. If the error is discovered 11 years after the survey was completed, the surveyor
dodged a bullet. Civil liability no longer follows you to the grave.

That is not true for licensing matters. When it comes to discipline against your license, that liability follows you to the grave or until you retire
and move out of state."

Sounds to me like I only need to keep files for 10 years.

http://clsaforum.californiasurveyors.or ... ons#p38371